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Map of the Niagara Rive-r. 
4 



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Depths of the Great Lakes. 



OFFICIAL- GVIDE 



NIAGARA 

FALLSRIVERFRONTIER 



SCENIC BOTANIC ELECTRIC 
•HISTORIC- GEOLOGIC 



q:;:;; 



By- PETER- A PORTERr 
WITH lUVSTR/^ONS BY- 
CHARLES D -ARNOLD 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

iUN. 20 1901 

COPVRIGHT ENTRY 

CLASS a XXc. N». 
COPY B. 



Copyright, 1901, by 
Peter A. Porter and Chas. D. Arnold. 



■c »" 






The Matthews- Northriip Works 
Buffalo, N. V. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Map of Niagara River, 4 

Map showing Depths of .Great Lakes, 5 

Contents, 9 

Summary of trip suggested at Niagara, ' ii 

Expense of trip suggested at Niagara, I2 

New York State Reservation at Niagara, and Queen 

Victoria Niagara Falls Park 13 

Transportation to, and charges at, points of interest at 

Niagara, 15 

Map showing territory usually embraced in the term 

Scenic Niagara, and covering the itinerary suggested, 16 

This Guide 18 

Descriptive, 21 

To the Visitor, 27 

Scenic Niagara, 31 

New York State Reservation at Niagara, embrac- 
ing Goat Island, Green Island, Stedman's Bluff, 
American Rapids and Fall, Luna Island, Biddle 
Stairs, Slope below Goat Island, Cave of the Winds, 
Porter's Bluff, Terrapin Rocks, Views of Canadian 
Rapids and Fall, and of the Gorge, the Three Sister 
Islands, Parting of the Waters and the Spring ; 
Prospect Park, Prospect Point, Hennepin's View, the 
Inclined Railway, Rocks at the foot of the American 
Fall ; River Bank for half a mile above Goat Is- 
land Bridge, with views of the upper river. 

Trip across the Gorge on Upper Steel Arch 
Bridge to Canada. 

Queen Victoria Park in Canada, embracing Old 
Table Rock, The Dufferin Islands, Views of Ameri- 

9 



can Rapids and Fall, and Canadian Rapids and 
Fall, and of the Gorge. 

Trip on top of Bank, Canada, by Electric Rail- 
road, to Queenston, showing views of Whirlpool 
Rapids, Whirlpool, Preglacial Outlet of the River, 
Lower Rapids four miles long, the entire Gorge, 
Brock's Monument, and view from top of Mountain, 

Trip across the river on Suspension Bridge back 
to American side. 

Return trip by Electric Road, along the water's 
edge, in the Gorge, American side, with views of 
Lower Rapids four miles long, Devils Hole, Whirl- 
pool, Whirlpool Rapids, the entire Gorge, the four 
bridges that span the Gorge, passing beneath 
three of them, and remarkable views of the Falls 
and Gorge as the car ascends the face of the Cliff. 

Trip on the Steamer " Maid of the Mist." 

The famous Power House of the Niagara Falls 
Power Co. 

Historic Niagara, 184 

The name Niagara; the Niagara River; the 
Falls themselves ; the Falls first seen by white 
men ; Indian occupation of this territory ; brief 
history of the Frontier ; points of historic interest 
along the Niagara River. 

Geologic Niagara, 250 

Botanic Niagara, 265 

Hydraulic Niagara, 271 

Electric Niagara, 271 

Niagara in Literature, 278 

Niagara in Art, 295 



ROUTE AND POINTS OF INTEREST, 

RECOMMENDED FOR A BRIEF YET COMPARATIVELY 
THOROUGH TRIP AT NIAGARA. 

Note. — If any long stops are made or points of interest visited be- 
yond those indicated herein, it is improbable that the complete trip 
recommended can be finished in one day. 

TRACE THIS TRIP OUT ON THE MAP, 

In the I\[orni>ig. 
Prospect Point; 

Goat Island Bridge and Green Island; 
Goat Island; 

Down the steps and to Luna Island; 
The Cave of the Winds; 

Terrapin Rocks at Brink of Horseshoe Fall; 
Three Sister Islands; 
Upper end of Goat Island; 

Across Goat Island Bridge to main shore, and up the 
river bank, on the American Shore. 

In tJic AftcDioon. 

Get on an electric car at the Soldiers' Monument ; buy a 
$1 Belt Line Ticket ; ride over the Steel Arch Bridge and up 
to Horseshoe Fall on the Canadian side ; get out and study 
the scene ; buy ticket to Dufferin Islands and return via 
electric cars ; ride to Dufferin Islands ; get out and view 
them ; return to Horseshoe Fall. 

On $1 ticket already bought, ride on electric car to 
Queenston (seven miles) ; over Suspension Bridge to Ameri- 
can side ; and up the Gorge on Electric Railroad, by water's 
edge, back to the Tower. 

Prospect Point; down Inclined Railway; Trip on 
Steamer "Maid of the Mist" ; by Inclined Railway to top 
of Bank. 

Walk to Soldiers' Monument near Tower ; thence by elec- 
tric car to Power House. 

The Power House. 



EXPENSE REQUIRED TO SEE NIAGARA 

THOROUGHLY, QUICKLY AND ECONOMICALLY, 
ACCORDING TO THE ROUTE RECOM- 
MENDED IN THIS GUIDE. 

AT NIAGARA, 

FOR A ONE-DAY TRIP. 

]\Iorning. 

Van service around Goat Island, $0.15 

Trip through Cave of the Winds, while seeing Goat 

Island, 1. 00 

Van service up the American Shore, ...... .10 

Afternoon. 
Electric Railroad. Buy Belt Line trip ticket. This 
takes one from the Soldiers' Monument over upper 
Steel Arch Bridge to Canada, up to Horseshoe Fall, 
from there down to Queenston (eight miles) ; over 
Suspension Bridge to American side and along 
water's edge up the Gorge back to the Soldiers' 
Monument. Privilege of stopping off at any points 

desired, i.oo 

When at Horseshoe Fall, buy electric railroad ticket to 

Dufferin Islands (upstream) and return, .... .15 

Then resume trip on Belt Line ticket already pur- 
chased. 
Inclined Railway, New York State Reservation, . . .10 

Trip on Steamer " Maid of the Mist," .50 

Electric Car to Power House, .05 

The Power House to the Gallery, .10 

Total $3.15 

Whoever follows this route and visits the points of inter- 
est suggested can feel that he has seen Niagara as thoroughly 
as it can be seen in one day. 

12 



FREE NIAGARA. 

THE NEW YORK STATE RESERVATION AT NIAGARA 

AND THE QUEEN VICTORIA NIAGARA 

FALLS PARK. 

The visitor should bear in mind that "Niagara is free 
to the world." 

Niagara to-day, the Falls, the Rapids above and below 
them, the Goat Island Group, the Gorge and the Whirlpool 
are substantially the same that they have been for hundreds 
of years. But the last fifteen years have made a new 
Niagara for sight-seers. 

By the establishment on the American side, in 18S5, of 
the New York State Reservation at Niagara, which cost a 
million and a half of dollars, and embraces 114 acres, includ- 
ing the Goat Island Group, Prospect Park, and a strip of land 
along the river bank, extending upstream for about half a 
mile above the commencement of the Rapids, the New York 
side of Niagara, which is the larger, more important and 
more accessible portion, was made free forever to all mankind. 

Similarly, the opening of the Queen Victoria Niagara 
Falls Park, in 1SS8, on the Canada side, which comprises 154 
acres, and cost nearly half a million dollars, made the lands 
at the Falls, and for a mile both above and below them, 
on that shore, accessible to all without pay. 

So, now, Niagara Falls, the grandest sight on earth, the 
rapids above them, and the gorge below them, can be 
viewed, studied, and enjoyed by all, both from the American 
and from the Canadian shores, and without expense. 

On each Reservation, however, there are certain extra 
but desirable facilities provided for visitors who may desire 
to patronize them, and for these certain fees are charged. 
These facilities are either transportation or special trips in- 
volving outlay on the part of the lessees, and are therefore 
facilities which it is obviously no part of the duty of either 
Government to furnish free. 

13 



These expenses on these two Reservations are not neces- 
sary to enable one to see Niagara, or even to see it well ; 
but they are really essential for any one who would see it 
thoroughly, for without incurring them certain glorious views 
and unique experiences are absolutely unobtainable. 

On the New York State Reservation these fees are : 

A Van Service, charge for the entire tour of the Res- 
ervation, with privilege of stop ofTs $0.25 

Guide and dress for trip to the Cave of the Winds, . i.oo 

The stairs to the slope below are free. 
The Inclined Railway at Prospect Park, up and down, .10 

The stairs are free. 
Trip on the Steamer " Maid of the Mist," .... .50 

In the Canadian Park these charges are : 

Electric Railway, according to distance. 

Trip down the elevator and with guide and dress, be- 
hind the end of the sheet of water, ,50 

The Inclined Railway, up and down the bank to the 

Steamer " Maid of the Mist," 10 

The road down the bank is free. 
Trip on Steamer " Maid of the Mist," the same as 

that noted on the American side, .50 

A toll for each carriage going to the Dufferin Islands. 

To view Niagara is one thing, to really "see" it is quite 
another ; while to study it, comprehend it, and enjoy it, re- 
quires time for leisurely sight-seeing. 

The building of the various electric railroads hereabouts 
have made travel, both at Niagara and to its environs, 
rapid and cheap, and has also made accessible many, until 
then unknown, views of its scenery. 

Whoever visits Niagara and follows the itinerary herein 
recommended can feel with certainty that, if he stays but a 
day, he has seen it as thoroughly and as economically as it 
can possibly be done in that limited time. 

14 



TRANSPORTATION TO AND CHARGES 

AT THE VARIOUS POINTS OF 

INTEREST AT NIAGARA. 

For the large majority of people who spend but a short 
time, say one day, at the Falls, the route given in this Guide 
will enable them, if they follow it closely, to see Niagara 
pretty thoroughly, and at a known and reasonable expense, 
in that time. 

But for the information of persons who desire to spend a 
longer time at Niagara, visiting two or three of the points of 
interest each day, and making trips to places of scenic or 
historic interest, which are not included in the itinerary 
herein suggested, transportation rates to, and admission fees 
charged at, all the usually visited points of interest here- 
abouts are appended. 

These points include all those mentioned in the route 
recommended herein, as well as others. 

ON THE AMERICAN SIDE. 

IN THE NEW YORK STATE RESERVATION. 

The Cave of the Winds, within walking distance, or 

reached by van service on Goat Island, .... $i.oo 

Inclined Railway in Prospect Park, within short walk- 
ing distance, ,io 

Trip on steamer "Maid of the Mist," reached by In- 
clined Railway, .50 

OUTSIDE POINTS OF INTEREST. 

Power House, reached by electric car, .10 

Devil's Hole, on top of bank, reached by electric car, .50 
Trip on Electric Railway along water's edge in Gorge. 

Rates according to distance. 
Fort Niagara, reached by steam railroad to Lewis- 
ton, round trip, .25 

Thence by Electric Railroad, round trip, .50 

15 







>-^ 



THEH.-N. CO., BUFFALO 



Map of "Scenic Niagara," 
Embracing the Itinerary herein Recommended. 



ON THE CANADIAN SIDE. 

IN QUEEN VICTORIA PARK. 
Steel Arch Bridge to Canada, over and back, . . . $0.15 

Burning Spring, 50 

Trip under end of Horseshoe Fall, 50 

Whirlpool Rapids Elevator, .50 

Brock's Monument, 25 

All of these points reached by Electric Railway. Rates 
according to distance. 

BEYOND THE PARK LIMITS. 

Niagara-on-the-Lake, reached by steam railroad to 

Levviston, round trip, $0.25 

Thence by steam boat, round trip, .25 

The various views of the Gorge and of the Lower Rapids 
are best obtained from the cars of the electric railroads, on 
both sides of the river. 

The other points of interest in the immediate vicinity of 
the Falls, enumerated in our historic section, are reached 
best by carriage. 

Rates of carriage hire allowed by law in the City of 
Niagara Falls, N. Y.: 

For carrying one passenger and ordinary baggage 
from any point within the city limits to any other 

point therein, not exceeding one mile, $0.50 

For each additional passenger and ordinary baggage, .25 

Not exceeding two miles, i.oo 

For each additional passenger and ordinary baggage, .50 

Not exceeding three miles, 1.50 

For each additional passenger and ordinary baggage, i.oo 
More than three miles, for two-horse carriage, two dol- 
lars for the first hour, and one dollar and fifty cents for 
each additional hour; for one-horse carriage, one dollar 
AND FIFTY CENTS for the first hour, and one dollar for each 
additional hour. 

17 



I 



THIS GUIDE. 

The first guide book of Niagara was issued about 
eighty years ago. Since that time numberless so-called 
guides, or attempts at guides, have been sent out. 
But the guide which in simple language tells accu- 
rately, fully and succinctly of the Niagara Frontier — 
first, about the wonderful scenery at and adjacent to 
the Falls themselves, and, secondly, about the many 
scientific and historic points of interest up and down 
the river, treating specially of the subjects enumerated 
on our title page — is yet to be written. 

Let us see, if in this, the opening year of the twen- 
tieth century, celebrated hereabouts by the holding of 
the Pan-American Exposition on the Niagara Frontier, 
we cannot now produce it. 

And we arrange it on a plan that is different from 
that adopted in any previous work on the subject. 

First of all, our plan presents to the visitor a '^ vade 
mecum," or itinerary, pure and simple, to all the 
scenery of what is usually known as Niagara Falls., 
This plan has been adopted because it is the one 
which, for so many years past, has proved so eminently 
practical and satisfactory to the thousands and thou- 
sands of visitors to the famed cities, towns, historic 
sites and scenery of continental Europe. 

We shall conduct the reader over the entire scenic 
Niagara, our route arranged so as to economize time 
and yet enable him to see everything, and at a mini- 
mum of cost ; and as we journey thus together we 
shall point out each and every place of interest, and 

i8 



give each, in its appropriate place, a short history of 
every important event, whether of scenic, historic or 
artistic interest, as in our saunterings they respec- 
tively come within our vision. For in this way mi- 
nutely covering the ground, and in no other way, can a 
stranger feel that he has really "seen " Niagara ; and 
seen it not superficially, but with a full knowledge of 
the past history of the immediate locality ; and for 
an intelligent comprehension of Niagara this past his- 
tory, in its many and varied aspects, is as much a 
part and parcel as the falling sheet of water, the 
rapids, the rainbow, or the cloud of spray. 

Visitors to Niagara may be classed in three divis- 
ions : The first, and numerically by far the largest, 
of these is composed of those persons who desire to 
see all there is to be seen thereabouts in the limited 
space of perhaps a day ; the second class comprises 
those who can devote two or three days ; and the 
third, and smallest class, those who expect to spend a 
week or more in the contemplation of this wonder. 
While for all three of these classes the programme 
which this guide wuU follow will be appropriate, it is to 
be observed that a strict and prompt adherence to the 
route suggested will enable a visitor to "do " Niagara 
in one day ; while for the other classes of visitors 
enumerated above, numerous side trips and variations 
from this programme, though still following it in its 
entirety, will make the visit all the more attractive 
and beneficial. For, while Niagara Falls itself may be 
seen in a day, there is no spot on earth where time 
and leisurely sightseeing more amply repays the 
visitor than at Niagara. 

19 



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NIAGARA. 

" Earth's grandest sight conceived to be 
The emblem of God's majesty." 

DESCRIPTIVE. 

FOR the reason that the task of describing any 
scene in Nature is difficult in proportion to its 
rarity, and that we derive our conception of 
the same from the comparison it will bear with other 
approximately similar scenes, and for the further 
reason that Niagara is unique and totally unlike 
any other sight on the face of the earth, it is a most 
onerous work to produce such a pen-picture of the 
Falls as will convey to the minds of readers who 
have never seen them any accurate idea of their 
grandeur. 

During the past two and a quarter centuries a great 
deal has been written about Niagara by thousands of 
people. Its description has been attempted in prose 
by many who are well known in the literature of the 
world ; and by many more who are unknown. The 
shortest, perhaps the most eloquent, probably the 
most suggestive, certainly the most non-descriptive, 
description of Niagara ever penned was that by Fanny 
Kemble, whose journal tells of her approach to the 
brink of the abyss, and closes with the words : 

*' I saw Niagara, 
O God ! who can describe that sight." 



Many minds have essayed to reproduce it poetically, 
many pens have recorded the impression of visitors 
regarding it, without even faintly describing it ; for 
there is no known rhythm whose cadence will attune 
itself to the tremendous hymn of this "sound of 
many waters," neither will blank verse serve to 
rehearse its attributes in song. The best specimen 
of the latter was written by a gifted poet, who visited 
this locality especially to set forth its beauties in verse, 
but who recorded only the following words : 

I came to see, 

I thought to write, 

I am but dumb. 

There is but one way to record, either in prose or 
in poetry, the fascinations of Niagara ; that is, to tell 
of its glories in that simple language which is the 
Creator's greatest gift to man. 

In prose, to record, not the sensations which the 
visitor feels, or believes he feels, as each new scene of 
grandeur bursts on his sight, but, as nearly as may be 
in words, the exact descriptions of what the eye at 
the moment sees, whether that be the gorge or the 
rapids below the Falls, the Falls themselves, or the 
rapids above them. 

Many visitors, yes, and persons of trained artistic 
sense, say they prefer the views of the rapids to those 
of the Falls themselves, as being less emblematic of 
overpowering force, yet none the less representative 
of ever-changing beauty, and, above all, as being 
more comprehensible to the God-given, yet limited, 
human mind. 



In poetry, to describe it, if indeed that can be done, 
as a part of that stupendous and eternal poem, whose 
strophies and lines are the rivers, mountains, glens, 
caves and rainbows of the universe, for of Nature in 
its grandest and most varied forms Niagara is a con- 
densation and an exemplification. 

But while much has been written — attempted prob- 
ably on the lines indicated — a good deal of prose 
that is worth reading and a very little poetry that is 
worth remembering ; it is of Niagara as a whole, as a 
unit, in its generality, in its comprehensiveness ; treat- 
ing the water, the Falls, the rapids, the gorge, the sky 
line of the river as seen from the brink of the Horse- 
shoe, the spray, the rainbows, and the islands as com- 
ponent parts of one absorbing whole, that almost all 
writers have treated. 

Some of them specially mention Goat Island, which 
is an integral part of Niagara, and which has been 
described in prose as " the most interesting spot in all 
America," and in poetry as *' the fairest spot God 
ever made "; others, and they are in the vast major- 
ity, refer to it only as an incident. Niagara Falls 
have never elicited a strong poem from any poet of 
the first rank. 

Some men, like Dore, have pictured the Cataract 
without ever having seen it ; others, like Brainard, 
have written poetic effusions without ever having 
beheld it ; but no important description of Niagara 
has ever been penned by one who has never gazed 
thereon and who has not felt the sensation occa- 
sioned by the first view thereof ; and certainly no 
one has ever written anything of real enduring merit 

23 



about Niagara in any one of its numerous phases 
which combine to form its transcendent whole, with- 
out having visited it, studied it in all its varied 
aspects, and been held enthralled by its spell. 

Above the Falls, Niagara has, in her rapids, exam- 
ples of many of the most remarkable combinations of 
Nature's work ; and those who visit here can experi- 
ence all the pleasure of the mariner, in standing on 
the Goat Island Bridge, knowing that an almost irre- 
sistible billowy force is fighting against that structure, 
situated near the edge of the gulf into which the 
river pours, and that they are still as safe as they 
could be on terra firma. It is a feeling that could 
not be reproduced in any other situation. One seems, 
when stationed at this point and looking down stream, 
to be on the verge of eternity ; should the bridge give 
way, he would, in a few moments, be carried over the 
cliff, and lost ! Yet the stability of the bridge 
removes all sense of danger, and compels confidence 
even in the presence of the dread power of the current. 

Iceland has splendid geysers, sending up heavy 
clouds of vapor from its boiling springs, sur- 
rounded by ice. The Matterhorn has its magnifi- 
cent ^^ Arc-en-ciel^'' which vies with the finest rain- 
bows in splendor ; and from the summits of the Alps 
one can look down upon the tops of trees which, 
from below, are of high altitude. Here all these 
and other yet more remarkable effects are brought 
together at one point. England on the south coast 
and France on the north coast are both proud of their 
splendid beetling cliffs, between which rolls the 
majestic current of the English Channel. 

24 



At Niagara, similar but equally imposing cliffs 
are brought together in close proximity, and form the 
boundaries of a river which, receiving its waters from 
the cataract, concentrate their mighty force into a 
turbulent flood, upon which one cannot look without 
allowing the mind to compare it with the Styx of the 
ancients. And yet this avalanche of power meets 
with an effectual stop in its career at the "whirlpool," 
where its course is violently turned aside at an angle 
of ninety degrees, thus forming a veritable maelstrom 
such as cannot be found in any other portion of the 
globe for strength of current and obstinacy of oppos- 
ing forces. Thus it would appear that Nature had 
exhausted her resources in placing at this point, be- 
tween two countries, a dividing line which deserved 
to be regarded as impassable. Further, she has re- 
versed the usual order of her works, to command the 
reverence and awe of humanity. Taking her fair 
coronet of rainbows from the skies, she sets it in the 
midst of a river-fall ; planting her high trees at the 
base of the cliffs, she causes their summits to be 
viewed from above ; providing an almost inconceivable 
avalanche of waters, she allows them to be observed 
from below, as if pouring from the clouds ; and in the 
coldest seasons, without the aid of heat, a mighty cloud 
of vapor rises, and, condensing in the form of ice on all 
the surrounding scenery, forms a fairyland of scenic 
effect which is as weird and strange in its conception as 
the works of enchantment. Yet the mind of man has 
refused to be subdued by the grandeur here displayed, 
and has calmly proceeded to utilize the very faces of 
the cliffs for the purpose of supporting bridges to 

25 



act as connecting links between the two countries 
which the river seems solely intended to separate ; 
and across them the iron horse deliberately conveys 
the products of human industry to and from each 
land. 

There is no point on the earth's surface from which 
an entire idea of human existence can be more ade- 
quately conceived than from the center of the Rail- 
road Steel Arch Bridge, which in the distance ap- 
pears as a mere web between the two cliffs, although 
solid and substantial as man's ingenuity can make it. 
There, suspended in mid-air, between precipices 
enclosing a terrifying chasm, through which rushes 
the mighty flood, it is impossible to stand without ex- 
periencing that feeling of enthusiasm connected with 
the assumption that the Creation contains no power 
too great for human control. Yet, when the heavily- 
laden freight trains cause the fabric to vibrate, the 
possibility of the breaking of the bridge seems so near, 
and total destruction in that event so certain, that the 
feeling of exultation is allied with that of fear, re- 
calling the idea of standing face to face with eternity. 

Niagara Falls, N. Y., with a population of 22,000 
(which has doubled in the last ten years), is a great 
manufacturing city. Its wonderful scenery, immedi- 
ately adjacent to the Falls, protected by the estab- 
lishment of the New York State Reservation, can 
never be encroached upon. 

Its founders named it Manchester, and, while that 
name was soon abandoned for the present one, their 
foresight of its capabilities in a manufacturing way 
has of late been fully justified. 

26 



TO THE VISITOR. 

Here, at the very beginning, let me say that this 
guide is intended to be unique. It is issued solely 
in the interest of the visitor. It contains no adver- 
tisements whatever, and its author has no financial 
interest of any kind in any point or company where 
tolls are charged or fares collected. 

It is believed to be unquestionably the most com- 
plete and the best illustrated guide to Niagara ever 
published, and it tells about Niagara in all of its varied 
aspects. 

A great lawyer was once asked if the legal profes- 
sion was not greatly overcrowded. " There is plenty 
of room at the top," was his answer. It is on this 
line, that among the many so-called guides to Niagara 
— all incomplete and inaccurate — there is plenty of 
demand for a complete, impartial and accurate one, 
that this is published. 

People are distinctly advised that if they want to 
really see and comprehend Niagara they must devote 
time to it. But it is recognized as a fact that the 
great majority of visitors to Niagara are obliged, or 
at least feel compelled, to see it in one day. Hence 
this guide aims to show them how to do it as thor- 
oughly and as economically as possible in that length 
of time. 

For those who care to make the expenditure, the 
entire itinerary herein recommended, with the excep- 

27 



tion of the trip along the water's edge on the Ameri- 
can side in the Gorge, can be done fully as well, prob- 
ably as expeditiously, and certainly with greater com- 
fort, in a carriage. In this way one entirely escapes 
the crowding and the bustle inseparable from the 
crowds of excursionists who, particularly on the elec- 
tric cars, are a prominent and a daily feature of 
Niagara's summer travel ; you can stop at points 
where the electric cars do not stop, and you are not 
obliged to await the advent of a car when you are 
ready to proceed. It is wise for all those to whom a 
quiet, peaceful trip about Niagara is of far more im- 
portance than the expenditure of a few dollars, to note 
this fact carefully. Further, the hire of a carriage 
for all day will probably be the same whether occu- 
pied by one or more persons, so if there are four in 
your party, the increased expense is not so great. 

Also let me quote the expressions of two well-known 
authors, as to the desirability of not seeing Niagara 
hurriedly. 

" People who come to see the Falls and run hur- 
riedly around them for a few hours and then away, 
can form no idea of their magnitude and sublimity. 
It requires time to realize their wonderful beauty and 
grandeur" ; and "days should be spent here in deep 
and happy seclusion, protected from the burning heat 
of the sun and regaled by lovely scenes of Nature 
and the music of the sweetest waters, and in fellow- 
ship, at will, with the mighty Falls. Long, long, I 
stayed, but all time was too short. I went and I 
returned, and knew not how to go." 



29 



SCENIC NIAGARA 

PROSPECT POINT. 

No matter how the visitor reaches the City of Ni- 
agara Falls, whether by steam or by electric railroad, 
whether from east, west or north (the unnavigable 
portion of the river lies to the south), the first point 
of interest he visits should be Prospect Point, situ- 
ated at the northern end of the American Fall, in the 
New York State Reservation, and he will at once com- 
prehend the geographical situation of Niagara. 

This point is 515 feet above the sea level at Gov- 
ernor's Island in New York Bay. 

As you stand, then, on Prospect Point and look across 
the American Rapids towards Goat Island you are 
facing almost due south. The American Fall com- 
mences directly at your feet. At its other end is the 
Goat Island Group. Beyond Goat Island is the Horse- 
shoe Fall. At your left, upstream, are the American 
Rapids, and on your right, below you, lies the Niagara 
Gorge, which the ceaseless flow of Niagara during 
many thousands of years has carved and hewn out of 
the solid rock, an illustration of the incomprehensi- 
ble power of the grandest waterfall on earth. It ex- 
tends northwards for seven miles, and is clearly visible 
from Prospect Point nearly as far as the Whirlpool, 
two miles away, where it bends to the left, and at the 
pool turns a right angle in its course. 

31 




Ice Scenery in Prospect Park. 



HENNEPIN'S VIEW. 



First of all, follow the path which runs on an upward 
grade down stream, along the iron railing on the edge 
of the bluff, until you reach the point known as Hen- 
nepin's View, so named in honor of the Franciscan 
priest who gave the first description of Niagara. The 
view here is changed so that you not only see both 
Falls in the foreground, but gaze at the edge of the 
American Fall, whose brink is a number of feet below 
you. 

Return to the Point, turn to your left, and, starting 
upstream, commence your itinerary of Niagara. 

The annexed sketch is from a photo taken about 
i860, and represents " Bossy Simms," whose owner 
was for many years the superintendent of the Inclined 
Railway, close by, 
and lived near it. 
The spot where she 
stands is not over 
100 feet from the 
edge of the Ameri- 
can Fall, and the 
sight of this gentle 
" bossy," who used 
frequently in sum- 
mer to wade out to 
the dangerous place, 
with no more evidence of appreciation of danger than 
she used to feel when she stood in the bed of some 
inland shallow creek, was a curious attraction to 
many a visitor of that day. 

33 



I. 


■■'^ 




w 


^.- 


.-^ ■''■•■ 



THE AMERICAN RAPIDS. 

Up the river from the American Fall, to and above 
the Goat Island Bridge, lie the so-called American 
Rapids, the most beautiful bit of what may be 
termed the smaller and, therefore, the more compre- 
hensible Rapids of Niagara. 

Following the shore line, let us walk slowly up the 
bank noting the many-sided views of the rapids as 
we proceed. As we reach the road that comes down 
the hill from the Soldiers' Monument on the left, 
look back along the path toward the Falls and you 
will be able to form some idea of the beauties of 
Niagara's winter scenery, as shown in the accom- 
panying view taken from this spot. 

A little farther along, turning toward Goat Island, 
a flat, dark rock appears in the center of the rapids. 
This is called Avery's Rock, and was the scene of a 
deplorable occurrence on July 17, 1853. 

Early in the morning of that day a man was dis- 
covered clinging to this rock. He proved to be one 
Samuel Avery, who, in the evening before, while trying 
to cross the river above Goat Island, had been drawn 
by the current into the rapids ; his boat had been 
carried over the Fall, but he, by a thousand-to-one 
chance, had been washed against, and clung to, this 
rock. The news sped like wildfire, and from within 
a radius of fifty miles people flocked to the scene, 
A huge sign bearing the words " We will save you " 
was quickly set up on the shore, where we are stand- 
ing. Boats were hurriedly carried to the Goat Island 
Bridge and, fastened to long ropes, were lowered 

35 



toward the rock. Several of these boats were dashed 
to pieces, others were swamped. Food was lowered 
to him in wooden boxes, by means of ropes from the 
bridge, one box reaching him safely. Late in the 
afternoon a raft was constructed and safely lowered 
to this rock, but stuck on a projecting rock alongside. 
Avery mounted it but it could not be drawn from the 
rock. Another boat was lowered. It safely touched 
the raft. Avery, weak from his long vigil and expo- 
sure, rose up and approached the edge of the raft to 
get into it. His weight tilted the raft. He lost his 
balance, failed to catch the edge of the boat, fell into 
the rapids, and, uttering an agonizing shriek, was 
carried over the Fall, after an heroic fight for life 
lasting nearly twenty-four hours. 

Prior to the establishment of the State Reservation, 
all the present grassy slope on our left, lying between 
the road that we just passed and Goat Island Bridge, 
as well as the river shore from that bridge to the head 
of the rapids, was covered with mills and other un- 
sightly structures. At no other point has the restora- 
tion of the natural scenery been more pronounced, 
nor the result been more beneficial, than right along 
this shore. 

BRIDGES TO GOAT ISLAND. 

Up stream from where we are standing is the new 
Goat Island Bridge, just completed. This is the 
fourth bridge to Goat Island, and the third erected 
at this point. The first bridge to Goat Island was 
erected some fifty rods farther up stream, and was 

37 



a comparatively small affair, built in 1817. The 
masses of ice coming down the river that winter 
struck against the piers of the bridge with such force 
as to demolish it ; but the Goat Island owners, with 
the perseverance of New Englanders, determined at 
once to erect another bridge, but selected the present 
site, rightly judging that the intervening descent 
of the river would so break up the masses of ice as 
to render the bridge comparatively safe ; and this 
proved to be the case. 

This bridge, erected in 1818, stood until 1855, when 
it was replaced by an iron-arch structure, which 
satisfied all demands of travel until 1900, when the 
present magnificent structure was authorized by the 
State of New York. 

In reply to the oft asked question, How were these 
bridges built ? Let me answer: Two giant trees, about 
eighty feet long, were felled in the vicinity and hewed 
square on two opposite sides. A level platform, pro- 
tected on the river side by cribbing, was built on the 
main shore. The two logs, parallel and some eight 
feet apart, were laid on rollers, and, with their shore 
ends heavily weighted with stone, were pushed out 
over the rapids. On each log a man walked out to 
the end, carrying with him a sharp iron-pointed staff. 
A crevice in the rocky bed of the river having been 
found under the end of each of these logs, the staff 
was driven down into it, and to it the end of the log 
was firmly lashed. Planks were then nailed on these 
logs and on this bridge stones were dragged out and 
laid in a pier, around these staves and under the end 
of either log, until a rocky foundation supported 

38 



both timbers. Each succeeding span was then built 
in a like manner. While the bridge was in process of 
construction, Red Jacket, the famous Seneca Indian, 
was on the bank, an interested spectator. As the first 
span was successfully completed and the erection of 
the bridge thus assured, some one asked him what he 
thought of it. Rising majestically, and drawing his 
blanket close about him, he muttered : " Damned 
Yankee," and stalked away. 

Thus Goat Island was accessible to the public ; and 
in 1818, on the completion of the bridge, was made 
the first road around it. On the western and southern 
sides of the island it was built out beyond the upper 
edge of the land of to-day ; for since that date some 
four rods in width on the western side and nearly ten 
rods in width on the western half of the southern side 
of the island have been washed away. 

AN IDEAL VIEW. 

Directly in front of us, and to the left, up stream, is 
that fan-shaped wave that comes tumbling over a vast 
flat rock. This point was considered by the late 
William M. Hunt as the epitome of Niagara ; and was 
the view that he selected in preference to all others 
when he was asked to decorate the huge panels in the 
Assembly Chamber at Albany, this being his idea of 
scenic Niagara. He died before his sketches for the 
work were fully completed. 

For those who have time, it is well to loiter on the 
bridge and gaze upon the views both up and down 
stream. 

39 



THE UPPER RAPIDS. 

To many, as one stands and looks up stream from this 
bridge, the view is the most beautiful at Niagara. Let 
me quote Margaret Fuller's description of this view : 
"At last, slowly and thoughtfully, I walked down to 
the bridge leading to Goat Island, and when I stood 
upon this frail support, and saw a quarter of a mile 
of tumbling, rushing rapids, and heard their everlast- 
ing roar, my emotions overpowered me, a choking 
sensation rose to my throat, a thrill rushed through 
my veins, 'my blood ran rippling to my fingers' ends.' 
This was the climax of the effect which the Falls pro- 
duced upon me — neither the American nor the 
British Fall moved me as did these rapids. For the 
magnificence, the sublimity of the latter, I was pre- 
pared by descriptions and by paintings." 

In the winter of 1829 it is stated that the cold was 
so intense, and the ice in the river and in the rapids 
above so thick, that persons were able to cross to 
Goat Island from the main shore without using the 
bridges ; a remarkable fact, if true, and a condition 
which Nature has never vouchsafed us since ; al- 
though during the intervening years there have been 
some remarkably cold periods. In the year 1896, 
save for one wide break over the deepest channel, a 
solid mass of ice accumulated below the bridge to 
Green Island, and between the main shore and the 
smaller islands and Goat Island, on which many per- 
sons walked daily for nearly a week. And one man 
drove in a cutter one afternoon from Green Island 
down almost to the edge of the American Fall. 

41 



THE GOAT ISLAND GROUP. 

Goat Island, as the words are ordinarily used, 
means the group of islands and islets situated between 
the American and Canadian Rapids, at the verge of, 
and just above, the Falls of Niagara. This group 
consists of Goat Island, which is half a mile long and 
a quarter of a mile broad, running to a point at its 
eastern end, comprising seventy acres, and sixteen 
other islands or masses of rock, varying in size from 
an average of 400 feet to ten feet in diameter. 

Five of these islands and the Terrapin Rocks are 
connected with Goat Island by bridges. Many years 
ago the two small islands above Green Island were 
also thus accessible. As Goat Island divides the 
Falls themselves, so it divides with them the interest 
of visitors ; for it is the one spot at Niagara. If only 
one point here were to be visited, that one spot, 
beyond all question, should be Goat Island. 

The group embraces over two-thirds of the acreage, 
and by reason of its location is by far the most 
important part of the New York State Reservation at 
Niagara. 

" It is a paradise ; I do not believe there is a spot 
in the world which within the same space comprises 
so much grandeur and beauty." This expression by 
a Boston divine, seventy years ago, is but a conden- 
sation of what many others since then have verbally 
expressed, in longer, but certainly in no more forcible, 
words. 

" The walk about Goat Island at Niagara Falls is 
probably unsurpassed in the world for wonder and 

42 



beauty," wrote Charles Dudley Warner, and the judg- 
ment of the world ao^rees with him. 



GREEN ISLAND. 

The little island at the end of the first bridge, now 
known as Green Island, in compliment to the Presi- 
dent of the Board of Commissioners of the State 
Reservation at Niagara, who has been a member of 
that Board since its formation in 1883, and its Presi- 
dent since 1890, was formerly known as Bath Island, 
by reason of the world-famed current baths, the first 
places erected where one could safely dip oneself in 
the running waters of Niagara. Up stream from 
Green Island are two little islands which in former 
days were connected with Goat Island by bridges ; 
the bridge to the first one being called " Lovers' 
Bridge." The bridge was short and not very wide, 
and, needless to state, from its name was well patron- 
ized. So much so, that it was deemed unsafe. It 
cannot be conceived that those owners of Goat Island 
thought that by removing the bridge they could any 
more stop the course of true love than they could 
dam the Niagara River, and the deduction is that 
finding it so popular they thought that by removing 
the bridge they could turn the entire Goat Island 
group into a lovers' paradise, which it has been 
ever since. 

These two small islands were called, respectively, 
Ship Island and Brig Island, by reason of a fancied 
resemblance, as seen from the bridge, to such vessels, 
the leafless trees in winter suggesting bare masts. 

43 



On Green Island stood for many years what was 
perhaps the ugliest building ever built at Niagara, and 
probably one which had the greatest influence in 
starting the movement for a restoration of Niagara to 
its former unmarred natural state. This building, a 
paper mill, not only increased the size of the island by 
continual additions, but by running long piers out into 
the rapids, for the purpose of collecting the water, 
marred the beauty not only on the island itself but 
particularly on the river above. It was removed by the 
State, on its acquisition of the property in 1885. 



GOAT ISLAND. 

Let us now stroll over the second and recently 
erected bridge, and we stand upon Goat Island, 

aptly referred to as '' the 
fairest spot God ever 
made." Taking the zig- 
zag steps up the hill to 
our right we reach the 
top of the bank, and im- 
mediately before us is the 
shelter house erected for 
the protection of visitors 
in stormy weather. Goat 
Island is almost entirely 
covered with an absolutely unique piece of virgin 
forest, where no axe has ever been wielded. Study 
it constantly, and enjoy it, while you are making the 
circuit of the island, for in the words of Longfellow, 
"This is the forest primeval." 

44 




THE ZIGZAG STEPS. 



STEDMAN'S BLUFF. 

From here, following the path 
that winds along the upper edge 
of the bank, let us walk leisurely 
along, taking in the scenery of 
the river as seen through the foli- 
age — and the forest beauty as 
seen on all sides — until we reach 
the northwesterly edge of the 
bank of Goat Island, Stedman's 
Bluff as it is called, where a glori- 
ous panorama bursts upon us, the 
same general view that we had 
when we stood on Prospect Point, 
and yet so different, because it 
is at the other edge of the same 
Fall. No finer view looking down 
the gorge of the river is to be 
had at Niagara. 

The irregular line of the Ameri- 
can Fall is better appreciated from 
here than it was from Prospect 
Point. The American Fall is 
i,ioo feet in width and 165 feet 
in height, being some six feet 
higher than the Horseshoe Fall. 

THE THREE PROFH.ES. 

Standing on the bluff, at the 
head of the stairs, and facing 

45 




A SHADED WALK. 



Luna Island, imaginative people used to be able 
to trace the outlines of three human faces, formed 
on the rocky face of Luna Island cliff, near the top, 
just beyond the small fall. The growth of the foli- 
age has tended to obscure them, and the falling of 
pieces of rock from the face of the cliff each spring 
has practically obliterated them. 

LUNA ISLAND. 

Down the broad stone steps, completed only last 
year, and which are protected by an iron guard rail, 
let us descend to one of the points of view near the 
foot of these steps and again take in the scenery. 
Let us cross the bridge that spans the little stream 
whose fall forms the Cave of the Winds, and we are 
on Luna Island, which derived its name from the fact 
that it was, at an early date, the most accessible place 
from which to view the lunar bow. Now make your 
way toward the edge of the larger Fall. Half way be- 
tween the bridge and the point, at our feet, lies an im- 
beded rock. Stop for a minute and look at it and 
compare it with the annexed print. On this, many, 
many years ago, an unknown, but patient, hand has 
carved the historic words : 

"All is change. 
Eternal progress. 
No death." 

Who carved them no one knows, and where he lies 
interred is a mystery ; but here, in full view of count- 
less thousands of annual visitors, stands his epitaph, 

47 






'^ 







v^'l 



3 



X 



/\ 



% 



% 





and the ceaseless roar of Niagara sings for him a 
grand and everlasting requiem. 

Come with us next to the exact point, at the edge 
of the Fall, and stand close to the railing and look 
down upon the wave-washed rocks below, extending 
along the entire front of the American Fall ; and 
again enjoy, this time with the waters of Niagara 
close at our feet, the wonderful panorama down the 
gorge. Directly below in the gorge are seen wooden 
bridges connecting the various rocks, and on these are 

seen figures having 

the semblance of hu- 
man beings. These 
are the visitors to the 
Cave of the Winds, a 
point which we shall 
reach in a short time. 
Gazing across toward 
Prospect Point, one 
will fully appreciate 

the daring of Joel Robinson, who, about i860, in 
order to show that even Niagara had no terrors for 
him (a fact which he had proved in many instances), 
took his iron- pointed staff in his hands and waded 
out toward the opposite shore, as shown in the illus- 
tration, and planting his staff firmly in a crevice of 
the rock assumed the pose and motioned to the 
waiting photographer to take this absolutely unique 
photograph of an incident at Niagara. As he stood 
there, not a hundred feet from the brink of the Fall, 
no human aid could reach him. His life depended 
on his own self-possession and the protection of 

49 




ROBINSON S DARING FEAT. 



Providence. A false step on his part meant certain 
death ; but he safely and successfully posed for the 
artist and returned unharmed to where we now stand. 

NOTED ACCIDENT. 

On the northern shore of this island, a few feet 
above the brink, is a spot of mournful memory. On 
June 21, 1849, th^ family of Mr. Deforest of Buffalo, 
with a friend, Mr. Addington, were viewing the scen- 
ery from this point. The party, in fine spirits, were 
about leaving the island, when Mr. Addington ad- 
vanced playfully to the little daughter of Mr. De- 
forest, saying, " I am going to throw you in," at the 
same time lifting her over the edge of the water. 
With a sudden impulse of fear, the child sprang from 
his hands into the river. With a shriek, the young 
man sprang to save her, but before those on shore 
had time to speak or even move they had passed 
over the precipice. The child's body was found the 
same afternoon in the Cave of the Winds ; and a 
few days afterward that of the gallant but fated 
man was likewise recovered and committed to the 
village cemetery. This is, perhaps, the most touch- 
ing casualty that ever occurred at the Falls. 

THE BIDDLE STAIRS. 

Let us retrace our steps from Luna Island over the 
bridge, up the long stone steps, and when we have 
proceeded a short distance along the edge of Goat 
Island another break in the line of trees shows the 



Canadian Fall in front of us. Just ahead of us, at 
the top of the bank, is a wooden building from which 
a flight of wooden steps leads down to a spiral stair- 
case, whose top is directly beneath us. These are 
the so-called Biddle Stairs, named after Nicholas Bid- 
die, of United States Bank fame, who suggested this 
means of access, and offered to contribute a portion 
of their expense if his ideas were followed. Though 
his proffered contribution was gratefully declined, his 
suggestion was carried out, and for over seventy 
years these winding steps have been the only 
means of reaching the slope below. By these steps 
visitors may descend, free of charge, both those who 
desire to go through the Cave of the Winds as well as 
those who desire only the sights from the banks below. 
It has long been felt that this method of descending is 
too antiquated, for while a journey will most amply 
repay the exertion, the ascent is tiresome, and to the 
aged and the infirm this trip is out of the question. 
It is expected that in the near future, as has already 
been recommended by the Commissioners, an elevator 
and more accessible stairs, in both cases running up 
the perpendicular edge of the cliff, or, according to 
one suggestion, both cars and steps, on an inclined 
plane, similar to the plan adopted at Prospect Point, 
will be erected. The present spiral stairway is eighty 
feet high and was built in 1829. 

THE CAVE OF THE WINDS. 

The trip to the Cave of the Winds is the most 
unique and picturesque at Niagara, and if one desires 

53 




Sam Patch's Leap. 



to take it he enters one of the dressing rooms in the 
wooden building before us, after depositing his valu- 
ables in the safe at the office. He disrobes and puts 
on a flannel suit and, if desired, over this an oilskin 
suit, and thus clad emerges from the dressing room 
almost unrecognizable by his nearest friends. The 
trip is one that should not be omitted, and is the 
most interesting of any at the Falls. 

Let us follow the guide, round and round and round, 
down the inclined stairs until we emerge upon the top 
of the debris slope, and face down stream. On our 
right hand, close to us, is the solid, rocky base of 
Goat Island, and as .we glance upward the upper por- 
tion projects outward over our head. In the old days, 
before the island was accessible, even as late as 1790, 
the island was described as having at its western end 
a sloping, or "about to fall," appearance. This evi- 
dently meant that the upper ledge of rock, which now 
projects somewhat beyond the base below, simply 
extended farther out into the gulf in those days. 

SAM PATCH'S LEAP. 

A point about midway between the foot of the 
stairs and the entrance to the Cave of the Winds is 
opposite the site where, in 1829, Sam Patch made his 
two famous leaps. At the water's edge he erected 
two huge ladders, each ninety-six feet long, set at 
right angles to the water, and far apart at their base. 
Their upper ends converged until they met in a small 
platform, which overhung the deep water as the lad- 
ders canted to the westward. These ladders were 

55 




CAVh; uF THK Winds, January, il 



fastened by ropes at their upper ends to the bank 
above, and also by ropes to great rocks placed on the 
path where we are standing. They were also stayed 
by ropes extending up and down stream. Climbing 
up the ladder to the platform, Patch, whose name is 
even yet a synonym for high jumping, waved his hand 
to the crowds assembled on the path, on Prospect 
Point and on the Canada shore, and, in order to prove his 
famous expression," that some things could be done as 
well as others," placed his arms close to his sides and 
leaped into space. He descended safely and rose to 
the surface amid the enthusiasm of the crowds. He 
repeated the feat successfully a few days afterwards. 
Later, he made a similar jump of about the same 
height at the Genesee Falls at Rochester, N. Y. ; but, 
being in an inebriated condition, lost his balance, 
struck the water sideways, his body was no doubt 
caught in the undertow, and did not rise to the sur- 
face. It was recovered some days later, miles away. 

THE CAVE ITSELF. 

Walking along the path we come to the edge of the 
falling water. Just before we reach it, on our left, is 
the huge rock, known as "The Rock of Ages." 

The impetus of the current carries the sheet of 
water well out beyond the face of the cliff, and this 
space between the inner face of the falling water and 
the rock is known as the "Cave of the Winds." 

It was first entered in 1834. The cave is being 
slightly enlarged annually by the constant force and 
power of a portion of the water bounding back after 

57 




THE CAVE OF THE WINDb. 



it Strikes the rock at its base, 
and slowly, but surely, cut- 
ting away the shale of which 
the lower portion of the 
back part of the cave is 
formed, gradually undermin- 
ing the upper ledge of lime- 
stone over which the water 
flows. 

In size it is now about 
loo feet wide, i6o feet high, 
and about loo deep. 

If the sun is shining bright- 
ly, and you stand between it 
and the spray cloud, you 
can see two and often three 
rainbows ; and frequently, 
when you stand right in the 
edge of the spray, you are 
the center of a visible and 
complete rainbow circle, a 
phenomenon unknown else- 
where. 

Visitors to the cave pass 
down and into it, behind the 
small sheet of water, and 
out again into the sunlight 
at the base of Luna Island. 
The trip in front of the little 
Fall along the solid, annu- 
ally renewed (for each win- 
ter the weight of the ice 
58 



destroys them) rough wooden 
bridges, through the clouds of 
ever-rising spray, bathing in 
the httle pools among the 
rocks, where miniature Niag- 
aras form plunge baths un- 
equaled anywhere, and, if the 
sun is shining, standing in the 
very center of an entire circle 
of rainbows, is a unique and 
beautiful experience. 



BELOW TERRAPIN 
ROCKS. 

Going back to the foot of 
the staircase, let us take a 
short trip toward the Canadian 
or Horseshoe Fall, a trip of 
some difficulty, and one that is 
taken by but comparatively 
few people, but which, when 
taken, amply repays the exer- 
tion. Passing along the rough 
and rocky path we soon come 
to the huge rocks, which, in 
ages gone by, undermined by 
the action of the elements, 
have fallen from their positions 
at the top edge of the cliff over 
which the waters poured, and 
now obstruct the path toward 

59 



END OF HOKSESHOE FALL. 



^ 




the vortex of the falling sheet. Over these rocks 
and the intervening rapid streams some few adven- 
turous visitors, always with a guide, have climbed. 
Here went Professor Tyndall, going far around the 
curve of the Horseshoe Fall, beneath and beyond the 
Terrapin Rocks to a point where the beating spray 
shut out all view, and he stood 
directly in front of Niagara's de- 
scending sheet, enveloped in the 
spray and mist — a point which 
he described as the " Ultima 
Thule " of Niagara — a point that 
has been visited by but very, very 
few persons of all the millions that 
have been to Niagara. 

AFTER THE ASCENT. 

Now let us return and climb 
those stairs ; and, after we have 
rested, take our way on to the 
Canadian Fall. We soon come 
to a break in the line of trees 
where the bank has evidently 
caved away, and where it is now 
protected by a closely-set wooden 
railing. Forty years ago, at this 
point, the carriage road was out 
beyond the edge, where now is 
empty air, so great has been the 
landslide here. Looking down 
from here, one gets the best direct 

6i 




:^^' 



THE BIPDLE STAIRS. 



view and direct appreciation of the difference in 
levels, for the water at this point appears to be very 
much farther away from you than when you stand 
on the steel arch bridge just below the Falls, where 
the distance between the roadway of the bridge and 
the water is about 200 feet ; and while at this point 
on Goat Island the distance to the water in the gorge 
cannot be over 250 feet, it appears to be very much 
more. 

PORTER'S BLUFF. 

Farther along, passing through a shaded walk, we 
stand on one of the most commanding situations at 
Niagara, Porter's Bluff, so named by the first Board 
of Commissioners of the State Reservation, in honor 
of the family which for three generations was the 
owner of the island, and by whose members, for three 
score and ten years, the natural beauty of the island 
was preserved intact and free from money-making de- 
facements and man's so-called improvements. Directly 
in front of us rises that immense cloud of spray which 
Niagara is ever sending up in honor of its Great 
Spirit, and at our feet, beneath us, is the brink of the 
Horseshoe Fall, whose center not over forty years 
ago was in such a curve as to give it that name, 
but which, toward the middle, during these last two 
score years, has receded so much that it is now a 
very acute angle. 

Do not hurry at this point, but let us sit down and 
study this view, and you will appreciate the situation 
and what we may call the geological location of the 
Falls. 

63 



= ■■ -F5^ 




Just consider that the 
Fall before you is carry- 
ing away the waters from 
the four great upper 
lakes, whose farthest 
springs are over 1,500 
miles away, and that the 
watershed of those lakes 
drains almost half a con- 
tinent. This Fall is 159 
feet high, about 3,000 feet in length, and at the point 
on the brink where the color is the greenest, there 
is said to be a depth of twenty feet of water. In 
1827, the steamer ''Michigan," an unserviceable hulk, 



A GOAT ISLAND PATH. 





Si 


i 




H«^Tf 


F^-^'- 


^^^-"^^ 


m,^ -y. 



)F I'OKTEK S BLUFF. 



drawing eighteen feet of water, was purchased and 
sent over this Fall. She came down the main channel 
by the Canada shore and passed over this Fall with- 
out touching either the rocky bed of the river or the 
brink of the Fall itself. 

04 



Estimates as to the quantity of water going over 
the two Falls vary, and, of course, are necessarily 
speculation ; but here are some of them : 100,000,000 
tons per hour ; 18,000,000 cubic feet per minute ; 
1,500,000,000 cubic feet per hour. In barrels, 
1,500,000,000 every twenty-four hours ; which amounts 
to 200,000,000 per hour, 3,300,000 per minute, or 
56,000 per second. Another estimate is 260,000 cubic 
feet per second. Of course, the amount varies as the 
river is high or low. These estimates were made by 
knowing the width of the river at some point below 
the Falls, measuring the velocity, and estimating the 
depth. And seven-eighths of all that amount of water 
is pouring over the Falls before you. 

The water power of Niagara is estimated at 
3,000,000 horse power, and the great Power Com- 
pany's tunnel, when running at its full capacity of 
120,000 horse power, will use but four per cent, of 
the water of the river, and it is estimated would lower 
the water at the crest of Horseshoe Fall but about 
four inches. 

The boundary line between the United States and 
Canada runs along the middle of the deepest channel 
of the river and up the point of the Horseshoe Fall. 
So the international boundary line at the Falls has 
changed, and will change, according as the apex of the 
Horseshoe Fall moves to this side or to that in its 
recession. 

The edge of the Fall, just below us, is believed to 
have been the point from which the Indian warriors, 
in ages long gone by, cast into the running waters, 
above the brink, their sacrifices of weapons of war, 

65 



I^IT"^^ 




and articles of personal adornment, as propitiations to 
the Great Spirit of Niagara. 

The "Fairest Maiden of the Tribe," who steered 
her white canoe to death, as the Neuters' annual 
peace offering to the Spirit of Niagara, always sought 
her fate over the brink, where the water is deepest, 
of the Fall before you. 

Over this Fall on the night of December 29, 1837, 
passed the blazing hull of the steamer "Caroline." 
She was an American boat, moored for the night at 
Schlosser's Dock, two miles above the Falls. At 
midnight she was suddenly boarded by a party of 
British, captured, towed out into the stream, set on 
fire and sent over the Falls. All this during the 
Canadian so-called Patriot Rebellion. 

THE TERRAPIN ROCKS. 

Now let us descend by the wooden stairs and 
take our way out along the safe, but frail-looking, 
wooden bridge until we reach its end ; then down 
the wooden steps and out to the iron railing, and we 
are gazing down into the gorge below, perhaps sur- 
rounded by the ever-rising column of spray, in the 
scenic and geological center of Niagara. 

Why the name Terrapin was applied to these rocks 
is unknown ; but conjecture says the broad, flat shape 
of the rocks, as seen from the bluff above on Goat 
Island, before they were accessible, is responsible for 
the name. 

Nearly opposite, on the Canadian cliff, just below 
the Falls, stood old Table Rock. In the gorge, at 

67 



the base of Goat Island, is the spot which we just 
visited, where Sam Patch made iiis famous leap. 

Looking down the gorge, the commencement of the 
Whirlpool Rapids appear at the lower end, while span- 
ning the gorge, and just before these rapids com- 
mence, are the two railroad bridges, and nearer still 
is the steel arch bridge for trolley cars and foot and 
carriage passengers. 

This is, probably, the best point from wdiich to 
study the recession of the Falls. Assuming that the 
average rate of this recession over a period of many 
centuries has been a foot a year, it will be interesting 
to note that a thousand years ago the brink of the 
Fall (for there was, probably, but one fall then, whose 
channel was the Canadian channel, for Goat Island 
being then a part of the main shore, there was no 
American Fall) was about where Luna Island is now. 
Nineteen hundred years ago, at the commencement of 
the Christian era, this Fall was at Prospect Point ; 3,000 
years ago it was at the upper steel arch bridge. At 
the date of the creation of man, it was a good half 
mile beyond this bridge ; 10,000 years ago it was at 
the cantilever bridge, far down the gorge; 12,000 
years ago it was at the extreme end of the gorge, as 
seen from here, that is, at the Whirlpool Rapids. 

Truly, Niagara Falls are not a thing of yesterday. 

THE SCENIC CENTER. 

Looking up stream, the main body of the Horse- 
shoe or Canadian Fall thunders on your right, while 
on your left ripple the shallow waters as they run 

69 



quietly to the edge of the cataract, beneath the little 
bridge by which we have just reached this glorious 
spot. Looking down stream, the gorge is directly be- 
neath you. Goat Island is on your right and beyond 
it lies the American Fall. No pen picture can pretend 
to do justice to this point of view on the very edge of 
the gulf. 

Gaze on the views all around you, for this is the 
scene you have come to see ; this is the Mecca of your 
journey. This is the very scenic and geographic center 
of Niagara. Satisfy yourself as far as possible, and 
then reluctantly turn away. 

From these rocks Niagara by moonlight is a dream 
of incomparable loveliness, and from here the lunar 
bow, formed by the light of the moon on the spray, is 
best seen, as here the spray is heaviest. I have al- 
ready quoted Margaret Fuller's views on the scene 
from Goat Island Bridge. Let me give her impres- 
sion as to the moonlight scene at Niagara here : 

A QUOTATION. 

" Neither the American nor the British Fall moved 
me as did these rapids. For the magnificence, the 
sublimity of the latter I was prepared by descriptions 
and by paintings. When I arrived in sight of them I 
merely felt, 'Ah, yes, here is the Fall, just as I have 
seen it in picture.' When I arrived at the Terrapin 
Bridge, I expected to be overwhelmed, to retire trem- 
bling from this giddy eminence, and gaze with un- 
limited wonder and awe upon the immense mass roll- 
ing on and on, but, somehow or another, I thought 

71 



only of comparing the effect on my mind with what I 
had read and heard. I looked for a short time, and 
then with almost a feeling of disappointment, turned 
to go to the other points of view, to see if I was not 
mistaken in not feeling any surpassing emotion at 
this sight. But from the foot of Biddle's Stairs, and 
the middle of the river, and from below the Table 
Rock, it was still ' barren, barren all.' And, provoked 
with my stupidity in feeling most moved in the wrong 
place, I turned away to the hotel, determined to set 
off for Buffalo that afternoon. But the stage did not 
go, and, after nightfall, as there was a splendid moon, 
I went down to the bridge and leaned over the para- 
pet, where the boiling rapids came down in their 
might. It was grand, and it was also gorgeous, the 
yellow rays of the moon made the broken waves ap- 
pear like auburn tresses twining around the black 
rocks. But they did not inspire me as before. I felt 
a foreboding of a mightier emotion rise up and swal- 
low all others, and I passed on to the Terrapin Bridge. 
Everything was changed, the misty apparition had 
taken off its many-colored crown which it had worn 
all day, and a bow of silvery white spanned its sum- 
mit. The moonlight gave a poetical indefiniteness to 
the distant parts of the waters, and while the rapids 
were glancing in her beams, the river below the Falls 
was black as night, save where the reflection of the 
sky gave it the appearance of a shield of blued steel. 
No gaping tourists loitered, eyeing with their glasses, 
or sketching on cards the hoary locks of the ancient 
river god. All tended to harmonize with the natural 
grandeur of the scene. I gazed long. I saw how 

73 




The Maiden's Sacrifice. 



here mutability and nnchangeableness were united. 
I surveyed the conspiring waters rushing against the 
rocky ledge to overthrow it at one mad plunge, till, 
like toppling ambition, o'erleaping themselves, they 
fall on 'tother side, expanding into foam ere they 
reach the deep channel where they creep submissively 
away. Then rose in my breast a genuine admiration, 
and a humble adoration of the Being who was the 
architect of this and of all. Happy were the first 
discoverers of Niagara, those who could come un- 
awares upon this view and upon that, whose feelings 
were entirely their own." 

BLONDIN'S WISH. 

It was from these rocks that Blondin, the world- 
famous ropewalker, wanted, above all other points at 
Niagara, to fasten one end of his rope and to stretch 
it from here across the gorge to the other end of this 
same Fall on the Canadian shore, and thus directly 
in front of Niagara Falls, directly above the ever 
foam-capped waves at its base, enveloped and shrouded 
in the ever-rising column of spray, to pass from shore 
to shore across a four-inch hempen cord in full view of 
the thousands that, especially if he walked at this 
point, would throng to see him risk his life. 

But the owners of Goat Island would not consent 
to be parties to such a plan, and absolutely refused 
permission, so he reluctantly abandoned his cherished 
hope and stretched his rope across the gorge a little 
way down stream from the site of the present steel 
arch bridge. 

75 



TERRAPIN TOWER. 

On this point, or rather on these rocks, stood for 
many years what was known as the Old Terrapin 
Tower, a rude, circular structure, built from the 
wave-washed stones found hereabouts, some thirty 
feet in height and twelve feet in outside diameter ; a 
tower which formed an essential feature in all the pic- 
tures of Niagara from 1833 until 1873. Up it ran a 
winding staircase, by means of which, during that 
period, many thousands of visitors ascended to its 
frail balcony and from there feasted their eyes on the 
scenery about them. This tower in the old days was 
the center of attraction to all visitors to Niagara, a 
veritable Mecca ; and no matter from what point or on 
which side of the river one gazed at the Falls, one 
was never satisfied until he had reached this spot and 
mounted the steps of this tower. It was blown up 
with gunpowder in 1873, not because of its danger, 
but that it might not prove an attraction contrary to 
the interests of a company who had bought the land 
around Prospect Point, which land, so long as it re- 
mained in the ownership of the proprietors of Goat 
Island, was left free to the world. It has been urged 
upon the Commissioners of the Reservation that it 
would be appropriate, and a pleasure to those of 
mature years, as well as a gratification to coming gen- 
erations, to restore this ancient, and much missed, 
landmark of the Falls, which in days gone by has de- 
lighted so many visitors, and which for nearly half a 
century was a crude, but not inharmonious, adjunct 
to the Great Cataract. 

77 



FIRST TERRAPIN BRIDGE. 

The first bridge from Goat Island to these Rocks, 
built in 1829, was a slight and unprotected affair, and 
the logs on which the plank rested extended out some 
ten feet beyond the edge of the gulf. It was on these 
logs that Francis Abbott, the Hermit of Niagara — 
referred to later on — used to walk with a rapid step 
to the very end and there quickly turning on his heel 
retrace his steps. It was from these projecting logs, 
also, that this same eccentric man was accustomed 
often to suspend himself by his hands, and such was 
his athletic power that he would draw himself up again 
and remount the log after hanging over the abyss. 
Standing on the spot and studying the picture of this 
old bridge, which is here given, one gets a better and 
clearer idea of the iron nerve of the man who would 
dare to perform such foolhardy feats, for every time 
he lowered himself over the gulf it would seem as 
though death stared him in the face. 

From these Terrapin Rocks, up stream, is seen a 
similar, though, by reason of the location, not as per- 
fect a view as that to which we shall later refer, 
in the eloquent words of the Duke of Argyle, of what 
he describes as the " Shoreless Sea." 



ONCE NIAGARA RAN DRY. 

On March 29, 1848, "for that day only," persons 
walked in the bed of the rocky channel of the Ameri- 
can Rapids between Goat Island and the mainland, and 
from Goat Island out in the bed of the main channel 

78 



towards Canada, and down the bed of the river to 
the very brink of these Horseshoe Falls, to a point in 
the then really horseshoe-shaped curve, almost half 
way to the Canadian shore. But the river was not 
ice bound ; its flow was diminished, not entirely 
cut off, its supply at Lake Erie having been tem- 
porarily blocked. Lake Erie was then full of 
floating ice, crowding to its outlet, the source of 
the Niagara River. During the previous after- 
noon a strong northeast wind had driven the ice 
back into the lake. During the night the wind 
veered suddenly and blew a gale from the west. 
This forced the ice-floe sharply, in a mass, into the 
narrow channel or source of the river, quickly blocked 
it up, and the still advancing ice sealed up this source 
with a temporary barrier, pushed some feet into the 
air. It did not take long for the water north of this 
barrier to drain off, and in the morning, the Niagara 
River, as men knew it, "was not." The American 
Fall was dry. The Canadian Fall was a mere 
shadow of its former self, a few threads or streams 
of water only falling over the edge. People, fearful 
every moment of an onrush of water from up stream, 
walked in the channels, where, up to that time, ''the 
foot of man had never trod," and where it has never 
trod since. 

The roar of Niagara was reduced to a moan ; the 
spray and, therefore, the rainbows disappeared. All 
day this phenomenon lasted, but by night the sun's 
rays and the pressure of Lake Erie's waters had made 
inroads on the icy dam, and during the night the 
barrier was swept away. By the next morning the 

79 



river again rushed by in its might, and its roar once 
more proclaimed that Niagara had resumed its 
sway. 

Retracing our steps up the wooden stairs, we stand 
again on the bluff of Goat Island, from which let 
us follow the road along the bluff beyond the 
Horseshoe Fall. 

NIAGARA'S RECESSION. 

It was in 1842 that the first steps were taken, by 
Professor Hall of the New York State Survey, to 
measure the recession of the Falls. He set up stone 
monuments at certain points, to which reference could 
be made in later surveys. 

Following the path for about forty rods from 
Porter's Bluff one of these small monuments is directly 
in the path, though when placed it was in the woods, 
well away from the road. It is marked with a cross 
on top, the arms indicating the cardinal points of 
the compass. 

THE CANADIAN RAPIDS. 

As we proceed we shall soon come to an open, 
unobstructed view, and at the right, below us, is the 
apex of the Horseshoe Fall, the present point of the 
cataract's greatest erosion ; and from this spot we 
gaze across into Canada, and while the water close to 
Goat Island is remarkably shallow, close to the Cana- 
dian shore are the tumbling rapids of that part of the 
current where are the swiftest waves and where passes 

81 



nearly three-fourths of all the water that pours over the 
Canadian Fall. Far out — possibly half way between 
Goat Island and the Canadian shore — lies a little 
speck of land but a few feet in diameter. Three score 
years ago, we learn from guide books, from maps and 
from the testimony of living men, there was at this 
spot an island which embraced more than two acres 
in extent. 

The constant erosion of the water on the edges of 
the shallow soil, the disintegration thereof, aided by 
frost and ice, and the submergence by occasional high 
water, has, bit by bit, worn it away to a mere speck, 
and the gulls, which years ago made it a constant 
landing place (from whence it was called Gull Island), 
now look almost in vain for a foothold on this, their 
former safe and isolated resting place. Where this 
island was the water is now very shallow. 

Just beyond this point the shore of the island, dur- 
ing the past fifty years, has crumbled away, for some 
400 feet in length by nearly twenty feet in width ; the 
old carriage road having formerly been out beyond 
where to-day is the edge of the bluff. 




THREE SISTER ISLANDS FROM BELOW. 



83 



FIRST SISTER ISLAND. 



Proceeding again for quite a distance, we reach the 
massive stone bridge that connects Goat Island with 
the first Sister Island. 
Let us pass over it, stop- 
ping on it to look down 
over its upper parapet on 
to the little cascade be- 
neath, which is known as 
the Hermit's Cascade, 
because during his resi- 
dence on Goat Island this was his daily bathing place. 
In winter the ice above shuts off all water from this 
fall. On the first Sister Island, as well as on the other 
two, are numerous little bits of scenery — ideal views 




BRIDGE TO FIRST SISTER ISLAND. 




THE HERISIIT S CASCADE. 



of graceful trees, of sandy beaches, or of rocky slopes 
and rapid currents — to which it is almost impossible 
by description to lead the visitor, but which will point 
themselves out to him, when he know that these 
little points of vantage exist just off of, and away 
from, the main paths between the bridges. 

S5 



These Three Sister Islands are so called after the 
three daughters of General Whitney, who were the 
first women, long before the bridges were built, to 
make the trip to the outer island, probably during 
some winter when the water was low. The bridges 
to them were built in 1869. 

SECOND SISTER ISLAND. 

The second Sister Island is a rocky shelf, broad and 
flat at its upper end, and here, when the water of the 
river is low, one can walk on the rocky ledge above. 
In and upon this rocky formation, study the effects 
of the action of the water, and the so-called pot holes, 
formed by pebbles or small stones brought down by 
the water and catching in some little depression in the 
rock, and there, turned and twisted perhaps for years 
by the current, they gradually wore their own size 
away and at the same time cut out circular basins 
in the solid rock itself. Just before reaching the 
bridge that leads from the second to the third Sister 
Island, we strongly advise our visitor to turn to the 
right and descend a little flight of wooden steps, and 
clambering over a couple of dead trees and a rock 
or so, to reach a little clearing where are found some 
of the most beautiful views at the Falls. Right at 
your feet are the American white tumbling waves, and 
the boiling w^aters that are constantly fed by the little 
cataract over which pours the most rapid stream of 
any at Niagara ; and no one bit of scenery at the 
Falls has a more varied scenic effect than this spot, 
so little known and so admirably portrayed in the 

87 



accompanying cut. At the lower end of the third 
Sister Island is a little unbridged piece of woodland, 
known as the Little Brother, to which we refer simply 
because of its beauty and the wonderful effects of light 
and shade which are here for the first time reproduced 
in facsimile. 



THIRD SISTER ISLAND. 

Crossing over to the third Sister Island, we can 
only say that the visitor must walk over every part of it 
in order to fully appreciate the scenery. At its upper 
end one might sit for hours gazing at the ever-chang- 
ing panorama. Up stream over the little ledge of 
rocks pour the waters from the peaceful shallow river 
above. A little way to the right are rushing rapids, 
and, as the eye follows the line of this ledge extending 
in an unbroken line toward and well over to Canada, 
the volume of water and the rapidity of the current 
increase with the distance. Just in front of this 
ledge of rock, perhaps 300 feet out in the current 
from this little island, the water spouts up as it comes 
pouring over the ledge and dashes against a flat 
rock. The old-time guides used to delight their 
hearers with a story that this misnamed "spouting 
rock," or, in actual words, this column of water, was 
caused by the water pouring against the old smoke- 
stack of the steamer "Caroline," which in its descent 
of the rapids was broken off and caught in some 
unknown way at this point. The current in the main 
channel near the Canada shore, opposite here, runs 
twenty-eight miles an hour. 

89 



CENTURIES HENCE. 

A thousand years hence the visitor at Niagara will 
gaze at the Horseshoe Fall, not from the Terrapin 
Rocks but from this third Sister Island. The Fall 
will have worn its way back to the long low cascade 
that, just above us, extends toward the Canada shore. 
The gorge at that time and at this point will, of 
course, be far wider than it is at present, and far 




LITTLE BKOl 



grander ; for the Falls, by reason of the declivity of the 
rocky bed of the rapids, will increase in height as they 
recede ; and when they reach this point will be over 
200 feet in height, a gain in altitude of over fifty feet. 

ANOTHER IDEAL VIEW. 

Some years ago Colin Hunter, then an Associate, 
now a Royal Academician, came over from London to 

91 



paint Niagara. Of all the points of view, he selected 
the one as seen up stream from the head of the Little 
Brother Island. A temporary bridge was built to it, 
and here, with a guard at the bridge, so as to be secure 
from intrusion, he painted his grand view, looking up 
stream. The upper ledge of rocks, with its long, 
rapid cascade, was his skyline ; in the foreground were 
the tumbling rapids ; far to the right of the picture 
the tops of a few trees appearing on the Canada shore 
above the waters alone showed the presence of any 
land. 

After satisfying one's self, if, indeed, that is ever 
possible, with the views from upper end of the third 
Sister Island, without trying to describe either the 
glorious scenery or the various points of interest in 
the short journey, we advise the visitor to clamber 
over the rocks along the Canadian side of the island, 
from one end to the other, and whenever a point 
of vantage occurs, and there are several of them, go 
out as near the water's edge as possible and you will 
appreciate the difference that a few feet in a point of 
observation may make in what is apparently the same 
scenery. Just before you reach the foot of the island 
a gnarled cedar tree and a rock, accessible by leaping 
from stone to stone, gives you access to a point of 
observation than which there is nothing more beauti- 
ful at Niagara. Do not fail to get this view, for it is 
the Colin Hunter view, as quoted above, as nearly as 
you can get it, and you will appreciate the artistic 
sense of the great painter, who chose this incompar- 
able view in preference to the very Falls themselves 
for a reproduction of the very best at Niagara. 

93 



PARTING OF THE WATERS. 

Retracing our steps once more back to Goat Island, 
and still turning to our right and following along the 
bank of the river, an entirely different aspect of Ni- 
agara bursts upon us. Instead of a yawning gulf or 
rapid current, or seething rapids, we find here the 
quiet waters and the shallow stream, in strong con- 
trast to the view we have just left. In the old days, 
hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of years ago, there 
can be no question that Goat Island, as is explained 
in the geological section of this book, was possibly a 




PARTING OF THE WATERS. 



portion of the main land, and extended very much 
farther up stream, for as we reach the extreme upper 
end of the island, a point known as the " parting of the 
waters," where the currents divide into the American 
and Canadian Rapids, a rocky or a sandy bar extends 
directly up stream for over a quarter of a mile ; and 
towards the Canadian shore, as far as the outer side 
of the third Sister Island, there is an inconsiderable 

95 



depth of water. All this portion of the river's rocky- 
bed undoubtedly at one time was covered with soil, 
and possibly trees like those on the main part of Goat 
Island ; and in those days the island may have con- 
tained, as one of the early chronicles says it did, 250 
acres of land, as against about eighty acres which 
Goat Island and the adjacent islands now embrace. 

REACHED BY CANOE, 

Here, as one stands at the " parting of the waters," it 
is not difficult for us to understand how the Indians 
in the early days used to come to Goat Island in their 
canoes, for between the currents, or along the quiet 
waters over this sandy bar referred to, it was easy with 
their light canoes to paddle down to and back from 
the island ; and even to-day it is no uncommon oc- 
currence for an expert oarsman to row down and land 
at this point. Nor is it an especially tiresome journey- 
back, for by keeping between the currents one en- 
counters but little rapid water. In fact, it is said that 
John Stedman, being too lazy to row his boat, used 
to mount his horse, and compelling the animal to 
swim across the channel that lay between the American 
shore and this sandy bar, at a distance of about a 
quarter of a mile above Goat Island, would let him 
walk down on this bar and thus land on the island, 
and in the same way would return. 

The water on the bar was then, as now, very shal- 
low, not over a couple of feet in depth, so that in 
winter one may yet walk on the solid accumulation 
of ice from this point for a long distance upstream. 

96 



THE HERMIT OF NIAGARA. 

From here, follow the shore of the rapids, and a 
little way along, near where the path diverges on the 
right from the road, we reach the spot where, on our 
left, formerly stood the hut that was occupied by 
the Hermit of Niagara, Francis Abbott, heretofore 
referred to. 

In 1829 a young Englishman, tall of figure, hand- 
some in appearance, carrying his few belongings on 
his arm, came to the village and hired a room, an- 
nouncing his intention of remaining three or four 
days. The fascinations of Niagara enthralled him. 
He studied every point. Erratic in his way, yet affa- 
ble when spoken to, he led a hermit's life, approach- 
ing no one, except when necessary. Preparing his 
own meals, he longed for absolute solitude. He asked 
permission to live on the First Sister Island, to which, 
he said, he could obtain access by wading the little 
stream between it and Goat Island. This could not 
well be granted, but he was allowed to occupy an 
abandoned hut that stood near where we are. Here 
alone, with his dog and his cat for companions, a few 
books, a lyre and a guitar for his solace, he lived for 
some months, rarely leaving the island, and then only 
to procure needed provisions. Friends in England 
supplied him with funds for his simple needs. During 
the day he staid in his cabin, but at night, when the 
island was free from visitors, he roamed about it, 
seeking the most weird and dangerous places, such as 
the end of the Terrapin Bridge, as noted before. He 
was accomplished in music, and composed much ; he 

97 



was a good linguist, and wrote a great deal, but in- 
variably destroyed all he wrote or composed. After 
some months of this strange, and to him happy, life, a 
family came to live in an adjacent hut on the island, 
and, dreading companionship, he removed to a little 
building on the American shore, just above the pres- 
ent steel arch bridge. Here he lived for nearly six 
months, descending the rude stairs at the ferry each 
morning to bathe. 

One morning, as he did not come up the stairs after 
his customary bath, search was made for him. His 
clothes were found by the water's edge, but he was 
not to be seen. He had been drowned — no one 
knew how. His body was recovered down the river 
some days afterwards, was brought back to his poor 
abode and given burial in the cemetery at Niagara, 
where a long, flat slab, marked, " Francis Abbott, the 
Hermit of Niagara, died July 31, 1831," marks his 
final resting place. 

His absorption in the scenery of Niagara shows the 
boundless influence that Nature here can exert on an 
oversensitive soul ; and his life remains a shining 
example of one who, thoroughly familiar with every 
aspect of Niagara, lost his life through overcareless- 
ness in venturing into her currents, whose eddyings 
and treacherous whirls he knew and yet disregarded 
once too often. 

SITE OF FIRST BRIDGE. 

A little farther down stream, below where the path 
diverges on our right, where the bank slopes grad- 

98 



ually down to the water's edge, is the site of the end 
of the first bridge to the island, built in 1817. 

Over a hundred years ago Goat Island was claimed 
by one John Stedman, according to the story of the 
Devil's Hole Massacre, told in our historic section, 
and the absence of trees from this upper end of the 
island is attributed to the fact that he used it as a 
garden, cleared it of trees and thereon is said to have 
raised, in successive years, wonderful crops of turnips 
and other vegetables. 

THE SPRING. 

A little farther along on the main road we come to 
a sign reading, " To the Spring." If desirous of a 
delicious drink of well water, it is amply worth while 
to descend this flight of steps and quench our thirst at 
the stone-enclosed spring ; and then, before retracing 
our steps, walk out to the water's edge at two or 
three points and view the beautiful effects of the 
American Rapids as seen, not rushing by in their 
grandeur as on the other side, but peacefully and 
beautifully gliding into little cascades and rippling 
streams, bordered by the low banks of this wondrous 
isle. Back up the stairs let us go, and following the 
path to the right we again reach the hill leading to 
the bridge over which passes every visitor to this 
isle, and we have completed the entire circuit, of 
one and a quarter miles, of 

"* * the island which divides 
Niagara's tumultuous tides 
At the brink of the mighty Fall," 

an island which has been most aptly and most truth- 

L.ofC. 99 



fully described by Basil Hall as " the most interest- 
ing spot in all America." 

ITS SCENERY. 

The scenery of Goat Island is of a twofold nature : 
that on the island and that from the island. The 
scenery from the island is the scenery of Niagara 
Falls, and from it can be obtained all the best views 
of both Falls, both rapids above them and the gorge 
below them. 

The scenery on the island is its forest scenery, and, 
by reason of its numerous flora and their abundance, 
is wonderfully attractive at all seasons ; in the spring, 
when the natural forest blooms in its vernal foliage, 
and when the profusion of wild flowers carpet the 
ground ; in the summer, when amidst the shaded 
walks and retreats on the little islands, fanned by the 
ever-stirring breezes created by the rapids, one wan- 
ders entranced ; in the fall, when the gorgeous color- 
ing of the leaves, changed by the frost into all the 
colors of the rainbow, delight and dazzle the eye ; in 
winter, when the glorious ice scenery covers every 
tree and twig, and Nature 

"Wasteful decks the branches bare, 
With icy diamonds rich and rare." 

" Not one in 500, we are persuaded, knows anything 
about the apocalypse which is vouchsafed to him who 
in these glorious winter nights seeks the isle, not of 
Patmos, but of the Goat," wrote David Gray ; and 
were one to have his choice of seeing Niagara but 
once, it would be hard to decide whether it should be 
in winter or summer, but probably in winter. 

lOI 



"The beauty of Niagara is upon Goat Island — 
upon the chffs over which hangs the greenest verdure 
— in the trees that lean out and against the rapids, 
as if the forest was enamored of the waters, suffering 
their youngest leaves to thrill in the trembling frenzy 
of the touch of Niagara. It is in the vivid contrast 
of the repose of lofty trees and the whirl of a living 
river, and in the contrast, more singular and subtle, of 
twinkling, shimmering leaves, and the same magnifi- 
cent madness. It is in the flowers that grow quietly 
on the edge of the precipice, to the slightest of which 
one drop of the clouds of spray that come from the 
seething abyss is the sufficient elixir of a long and 
lovely life." So wrote George William Curtis. 

If your visit to Niagara is a protracted one, you 
should not fail to pass through Goat Island by the 
different paths, in order to observe its picturesque 
forest beauty and its scenic attractions. 

The scenery of Goat Island by moonlight, at any 
season, once seen is never to be forgotten. One 
might paraphrase and say 

" If you would see this isle aright, 
Go visit it by pale moonlight." 

It were useless to attempt a description of it. From 
the Terrapin Rocks and from Luna Island the Lunar 
Bow is to be seen best in its glorious indistinctness, 
and it is to these points 

"That many a Lunar belle goes forth, 
To meet a Lunar beau." 

And from the Terrapin Rocks, Luna Island and 
Prospect Point each morning, when the sun is not 
103 



obscured, one gazes entranced into the rising clouds 
of spray, from which the bow of promise, Hke 

'An arch of glory springs, 
Sparkling as the chain of rings, 
Round the neck of virgins hung." 

And when, on a bright afternoon, along toward 
sunset, one stands among the rocks at the base of and 
in front of the Luna Island Fall or of the American 
Fall, he is the center not only of a complete rainbow 
circle, but of three complete concentric circles of 
rainbows, a phenomenon visible only here. 

Byron's description of Velino may properly be 
applied to Niagara. Another poet likens Goat Island 
to "Love in the clasp of madness"; while Tom 
Moore, who gazed at it from across the gorge in 1804, 
makes the Spirit say : 

" There amidst the island's sedge 
Just above the Cataract's edge 
Where the foot of living man 
Never trod since time began," 

which was poetic, but not founded on fact. And still 
another wrote of 

" The isle that linked in wild Niagara's firm embrace, 
Still wears the smile of summer on its face." 



ITS NAME. 

Prior to 1770, John Stedman, before referred to, 
claimed to own Goat Island. In the fall of that year 
he placed on the island a number of animals, among 
them a male goat. His expressed object in putting 

104 



these animals there was to get them out of tlie reach 
of the bears and wolves which then prowled about 
his home on the main shore some two miles farther 
up stream. That wi'nter was a very severe one and 
by spring all but the goat were dead. 

His tenacity of life gave his name to his island 
prison, and Goat Island it has been called ever since. 
Whether the goat died on the island is not known. 
So thoroughly has this name become attached to the 
island that it would seem impossible now to change 
it, were it so desired, which it is to be hoped it will 
not be. In 1819, when the Commissioners under the 
treaty of Ghent were engaged in determining the 
boundary line between the United States and Canada, 
Gen. Porter, one of the Commissioners, and also an 
owner of Goat Island, proposed to call it " Iris Is- 
land," and it was so designated in the minutes of, and 
on the maps published by, the Commissioners. But 
the traveling public of the world would have none of 
it ; Goat Island it was ; Goat Island it should remain. 
So they called it, so they continued to call it, and so 
it is known even until to- day, both in literature 
and in cartography. 

ITS FIRST WHITE VISITOR. 

We can only conjecture as to the name of the first 
white man who gazed upon Niagara Falls. In like 
manner, we can only conjecture as to the name of the 
first white man who ever stood on Goat Island. Who 
ever the latter was, it is pretty certain that he reached 
it from up stream by canoe. 
105 



In 1764 there came to Fort Niagara, in Bradstreet's 
army, in the British service, a man destined in after 
years to be a conspicuous figure in colonial history — 
Israel Putnam. He was lieutenant-colonel of a Con- 
necticut regiment, and tradition says that during the 
month the army lay in camp at this fort he visited Goat 
Island on a wager — being the first white man to set foot 
thereon. One end of a long rope was secured on the 
shore, its other end being fastened to a boat, and was 
paid out as the boat was swiftly paddled to the island. 
The boat and its occupants were later hauled back to 
the mainland. The story in itself, minus the rope at- 
tachment, is by no means improbable ; but it is much 
more than probable that many white men, both French 
and British, had been on the island before 1764. 

Augustus Porter first visited Goat Island in 1805. 
He found at its upper end the clearing of a few acres 
made many years before by Stedman. 

He also found carved on the trees thereon the dates 
1769, 1770, 1779, 1783 ; which was pretty substantial 
proof of earlier visits thereto. 

Of course, since the island was bridged hundreds of 
thousands have visited it, so that any early dates now 
readable on trees thereon may have been carved by 
visitors of much more recent years. 

ITS PROPOSED USES. 

Many are the uses to which the ingenuity of man 
has, during the past ninety years, desired to turn the 
island. 

It was desired originally for a sheep pen. 
106 



The State Legislature designed to use it for a State 
prison or a State arsenal, and because of such pro- 
posed uses declined to allow it to be sold, when 
application for its purchase was first made. 

Lafayette, as well as many others, would have 
liked to have it for a residence park. 

P. T. Barnum wanted to buy it for a circus ground. 

Cornelius Vanderbilt, Sr., tried to buy it for use as a 
pleasure ground in connection with his railroads. 

Jim Fiske wanted it for use as a picnic ground and 
as a terminal of the Erie Railroad. 

And among the many propositions which were made 
between 1850 and 1880, all of which were promptly 
declined, to its owners for its use were, as the site of a 
mammoth hotel, as a race track, as a botanical garden, 
as a rifle range, and as a site for a collection of manu- 
factories to be located along the shores of the jsland 
and the power to be furnished by running tall piers 
out into the river and thus collecting the waters; and, 
again, by cutting a canal through the center of the 
island from east to west and locating the factories 
along its banks. 

DeWitt Clinton, in 1810, noted its value for hy- 
draulic works, and that use was suggested oftener 
than any other until the establishment of the State 
Reservation in 1885. And even since then plans 
have been urged with this object in view ; some men 
seeming to be unable to realize (when they think they 
see a dollar for themselves) that the State's purchase 
was for the sole purpose of forever retaining the 
natural scenery which private owners had happily 
preserved. 

107 



ITS OWNERS. 

The ownership of the islands maybe summarized as 
follows : 

The Aborigines — 1600 

The Neuters, 1600-165 1 

The Senecas, 1651-1764 

Sir William Johnson, 1764 

The English Crown, 1764-1783 

State of New York, 1783-1816 

The Porters, 1816-1885 

State of New York, 1885-1901 



THE INDIANS ADORED IT. 

To the Indians, the Senecas, as well as to the 
Neuters and the Aborigines, Goat Island was a sacred 
spot. To them it was the abode of the Great Spirit of 
Niagara. In the spray they saw the manifestation of 
their Deity, in the thunder of the cataract they heard 
His voice — 

"And the poor Indian whose untutored mind 
Sees God in clouds and hears him in the wind " 

believed that he could sometimes even see, in the 
ever-shifting clouds of mist, the outlined figure of 
Him whom he worshiped. The island's use to the 
Aborigines appears to have been as a burial ground, 
and tradition says that in its soil rest the remains of 
many an Indian warrior, interred there hundreds of 
years ago ; over whose mounds to-day stand trees 
of great age. Here, says the same untraceable 

108 



tradition, was interred the body, when recovered, of the 
"fairest maiden of the tribe," who was annually sent 
over the Fall, in a white canoe decked with flowers, 
as the noblest possible sacrifice to the Great Spirit. 

There is no record of any Indian burial taking 
place on the island. Hennepin makes no mention of 
this use of it, as he would in all probability have done 
had the Senecas, or even had their immediate pre- 
decessors, the Neuters, buried their warriors here. But 
he says "the island is inaccessible." Hence we can 
only assume that these graves long antedate his visit, 
and are the graves of Aborigines. 

Tradition tells us that the Indians of long ago 
made annual pilgrimages to Niagara, often coming 
great distances, to offer to the Great Spirit sacrifices 
of the spoils of the chase, of war, and of the crops. 
Further, the chiefs and warriors, invoking blessings 
for the future, used to cast into its waters offerings of 
their weapons and adornments. We must assume 
that at least these offerings were made from Goat 
Island, as no "brave" would have been considered 
worthy of the name who could not reach the insular 
abode of the Great Spirit, from thence to offer up 
his invocation. 

In 1834, the skeleton of a young female, that had 
been dug up on Goat Island shortly before, was in the 
museum of the Boston Medical College ; and many 
years ago, when a fish pond was dug, not far above 
the bridge, a large collection of human bones were 
found in one spot. Most of the Indian graves, how- 
ever, are on the w^estern half of the island, where 
the soil is deeper. 

109 



IMPROVEMENT ON NATURE. 

In regard to all of Nature's handiwork, there are 
always men who think that certain parts of it would 
have been more effectively and better done if they 
could only have been consulted about it, and even the 
case of Niagara and Goat Island is no exception. 

Perhaps one of the least objectionably worded of 
such criticisms on Goat Island, which is conceded 
to be one of the loveliest and grandest spots on earth, 
was written less than forty years ago, in these words : 

" It would be considered rather presumptuous in any 
one to think of improving upon Niagara, but I cannot 
help thinking that the effect would be increased 
immensely if the island which divides the cataract 
into the Horseshoe and the American Falls and the 
rock which juts up in the latter and subdivides it un- 
equally, were moved or did not exist ; then the river, 
in one grand front of over i,ooo yards, would make 
the leap en masse." 

Fortunately, the idea is now impracticable, and 
Goat Island exists because such is the will of the 
Creator. 

POETIC PROSE. 

Goat Island and Niagara, for they are synonymous 
terms, once seen can never be forgotten, nor will the 
influences derived from a leisurely visit to them ever 
be entirely lost. 

Their impression on an appreciative mind was 
beautifully expressed many years ago, by J. B. Orton, 
in the following poetic prose : 

no 



^'Niagara, when once we become acquainted with 
it, is capable of exercising a strange power of fascina- 
tion over the mind ; and the imaginative individual 
should not be surprised if he find mere water, earth, 
and air changing in its conceptions into a creature 
of life. No wonder that the savages adored it, and 
peopled it with invisible beings, and imagined it the 
abode of the Great Spirit. With me it will always 
remain a vision of beauty, closely associated with that 
glory with which, in my notion, I shadow and imagine 
the Supreme. I loved it as a fellow ; I left it with 
regret. Its form still lingers before my eyes, its rush- 
ing voices still hymn in my ears. And often still, 
sleeping or waking, am I, in heart, among the cedars 
of Iris Island," 

ON THE MAIN SHORE. 

Returning to Green Island and across to the main 
shore, you will find special delight in going up the 
river bank. The New York State Reservation extends 
up stream for over half a mile, far beyond the com- 
mencement of the rapids, where the water runs 
swiftly, but comparatively placidly. The varied 
views of the American Rapids close at hand, of the 
wooded shore and upper end of Goat Island, of the 
commencement of the Canadian Rapids and the 
Canadian shore in the distance, of the broad river 
above, with the wooded shores of Navy Island and 
Grand Island far away, will amply repay you for the 
time spent. 

Tradition says that about the middle of the last 
century the French, who then controlled aU this sec- 
III 



r 




tion, impressed by the magnitude of the water power 
at Niagara, built a sawmill on this shore at a point 
opposite Goat Island. About 1760 the British, who 
had just supplanted the French in control here, are 
said to have erected another sawmill near the same 
spot, that was used in preparing timbers for their for- 
tifications along the river. About 1775, Stedman is 
said to have erected a new mill on the same site, and 
early in this century the Porters erected, at the foot 
of what is called Willow Island (now a part of the 
State Reservation), still another sawmill, and near it 
the first gristmill built on this frontier. 

TO THE CANADA SIDE. 

On your return to the vicinity of Goat Island Bridge, 
we are ready to show you scenic Niagara from the 
Canada side : first the Falls, then the Dufferin Islands, 
and then to show you the entire gorge, the Whirlpool 
Rapids, the Whirlpool and the Lower Rapids — this 
latter trip in an electric car, a ride of fourteen miles, 
without leaving the car, and landing you at your 
exact starting point. 

At the Soldiers' Monument board an electric car, 
which will take you to and over the upper steel arch 
bridge to Canada. 

We advise you to buy a so-called belt line electric 
railroad ticket, which cost $1 each. For this you 
will be carried from the monument to and across the 
bridge to Canada, up to the Horseshoe Fall, one 
mile, and from there back to the bridge and to 
Queenston, seven miles below, back across the 

113 



gorge, over the Lewiston Suspension Bridge, to the 
New York shore, and over an electric road, close to 
the water's edge almost all the way, back to the 
monument, a ride of sixteen miles. This trip can be 
taken without leaving the car ; but, of course, the 
visitor ought to spend some time at the Horseshoe 
Fall. This ticket, moreover, gives you the right of 
stop-off at any and all stations on the entire trip, re- 
suming and completing the journey as desired, with- 
out any extra expense. 

STEEL ARCH BRIDGE. ,' 

This bridge is. the third one erected on this site. 
The first one was built in 1869, and was of the sus- 
pension type, the cables having been carried across 
the gorge on an ice bridge. In 1889, a tremisndous 
gale of wind lifted the roadway, which was almost 
exactly a quarter of a mile long, some six feet into 
the air, and when it dropped back to its former 
positron it tore away all the bolts and nuts that were 
attached to the wire ropes by which it was suspended 
from the heavy cables, and the entire floorway, 1,300 
feet long, dropped into the gorge below. It was at 
once rebuilt,, and in 1895 was replaced by the present 
steel arch structure. 

JUMPERS. 

Some years ago a man performed the perilous feat, 
on two occasions, of dropping from the edge of the 
roadway of the bridge into the waters below. Fast- 
ened to the side of the bridge was a freely-revolving 

114 



drum around which was coiled some three hundred 
feet of medium-sized wire. The end of this wire was 
attached to a hook in a leather band that was strapped 
around his chest, the hook being located between his 
shoulders. The end of the wire having been securely 
fastened into this ring, the man stepped to the top of 
the railing of the old bridge, lowered himself until he 
hung by his hands from the edge of the floor directly 
beneath the drum, then loosening his hold, he de- 
scended with lightning-like rapidity; the .wire as it 
uncoiled from the drum merely serving to keep his 
body in a perpendicular position. 

In 1878, a man named Peer, after duly advertising 
his intention, hung by his hands from the edge of the 
roadway of the bridge and, unaided by any mechan- 
ical appliance, dropped into the river below unhurt. 
At the center of the bridge the water in the gorge is 
200 feet below us. 

In 1873, 3L rope was stretched across the gorge 
above the bridge, from Hennepin's View on the State 
Reservation to a point opposite. 

A man, Bellini by name, walked out to the center 
of this rope, where a rubber cord, twelve feet long, 
and an inch and a quarter in diameter, was securely 
fastened, its other end being attached to the middle 
of a. short handle bar. Seizing this handle bar, and 
with the rubber cord taut but-.- not stretched, he 
leaped from the rope, and, kept in a perpendicular 
position by the stretching rubber cord, safely struck 
the water, the soles of his feet being protected by 
sloping lead sandals, and sank out of sight. He arose 
to the surface, and a day or two after successfully 
115 



repeated the feat. A third time he tried it, but this 
time the cord parted at its juncture with the main 
rope, and freed from its restraining pull, he sank to a 
great depth below the surface. The twelve feet of 
rubber cord wound itself about his legs and prevented 
any attempt at swimming below water. After a lapse 



NIAGARA FKOM THE WATER S EDGE BELOW THE BRIDGE. 

of time, which no doubt seemed to him an eternity, 
and which to the spectators seemed to insure death, 
he rose to the surface alive, but utterly exhausted. 
Needless to say, he never made the leap again. 



VICTORIA PARK. 

Reaching the farther end of the bridge, we are in 
the Victoria Park, and obtain a new view of Niagara, 
for from here the American Fall is seen from nearly in 
front. The car, turning to the left, starts toward the 
Horseshoe Fall, of which we now get a splendid 
distant view. As we reach the road that comes down 
the hill on our right we are at the point from which 
was taken the first known picture of Niagara. Father 
Hennepin first saw the Falls in December, 1678; but 
his picture, drawn probably from memory, was not 
published until 1697. From here, too, is taken the 
117 



view of the rarest of all Niagara pictures, engraved 
by Leclercq about 1700. It is based on Hennepin's 
view, though considerably changed, and the suppo- 
sition is that this artist, desiring to unite in one plate 
the greatest natural wonder on earth and the greatest 
honor ever vouchsafed by the Almighty to mortal man, 
added in one corner the view of Elijah and his chariot. 
It is reproduced in our art section. 

The Victoria Park is a model, so far as good roads, 
foot paths, and accommodations for visitors are con- 
cerned. Opposite the American Fall is a rustic arbor, 
called Inspiration Point, whence one gets a direct 
front view of this Fall and can watch the little steamer, 
'' Maid of the Mist," as she makes this unique water 
trip from below the American Fall and up into the 
vortex of foam, until the power of the water over- 
comes the force of her engines and she turns her prow 
down stream for the return trip. 

OVER THE FALLS ALIVE. 

No human being has ever gone over the Falls alive. 
But there are three authenticated cases in which a cat 
and two dogs, respectively, each thrown into the 
rapids from the bridge to Green Island, have taken 
the plunge over the American Fall and lived. The 
following solution of how such a thing is possible 
may be studied from where we now are, on the 
Canada shore, directly opposite the American Fall. 

On a bright day, if one looks steadily at the bottom 
of this Fall where the descending sheet falls mto the 
water, he may see, as the spray is occasionally blown 
119 




i 



aside, a beautiful exhibition of water cones, apparently 
eight or ten feet high. These are formed by the rapid 
accumulation and condensation of the falling water. 
It pours down so rapidly and in such quantities that 
the water below cannot run off fast enough, and piles 
up in these cones as though it were in a state of 
violent ebullition. These cones are constantly form- 
ing and breaking, and it is supposed that the animals 
above referred to struck, in each instance, on the top 
of one of these cones just when it broke, and the 
receding water, acting as a cushion, so modified the 
force of the descent that the animal slid safely into 
the current below, aided by the repulsion of the water 
from the rocks in the swift channel through which it 
passed. In this way it is possible, though improbable, 
that a strong man might go over Niagara Falls and 
not be killed. 

OLD TABLE ROCK. 

The car takes us along, past Goat Island, whose 
rocky cliff in the gorge is seen in front view opposite, 
and on until we gaze across at the Terrapin Rocks 
and the Goat Island end of the Horseshoe Fall, Here 
is an elevator down the bank, but it is not of enough 
importance to cause us to stop. 

Just before we reach the edge of the Horseshoe 
Fall, let us alight from the car and step to the edge 
of the bluff. Right at this point was old Table Rock, 
simply a ledge of rock projecting some fifty feet over 
the gorge, the softer rocky substratum having been 
gradually worn away by the action of the elements. 

121 



It was a splendid point of observation in the early 
days. The last part of it, some fifty feet wide and 
nearly loo feet in greatest length, fell with a crash in 
1853. Luckily, no visitors were on it at the time, 
though a party of a dozen had left it but a few 
moments before. Part of its rocky remains may be 
noted on the slope near the water in the gorge below. 
It was on Table Rock that Mrs. Sigourney composed 
her famous "Apostrophe to Niagara." It was here, 
also, that Chataubriand so nearly lost his life, as he 
tells in the following words : " On my arrival I 




TABLE KOCK IN 1S.")(I. 



repaired to the Fall, having the bridle of my horse 
twisted round my arm. While I was stooping to look 
down, a rattlesnake stirred among the neighboring 
bushes ; the horse was startled, reared, and ran back 
toward the abyss. I could not disengage my arm 
from the bridle, and the horse, more and more fright- 
ened, dragged me after him. His forelegs were all 
but off the ground, and, squatting on the brink of the 
precipice, he was upheld merely by the bridle. I 
gave myself up for lost, when the animal, himself 
astonished at this new danger, made a fresh effort, 
threw himself forward with a pirouette, and sprang 
to a distance of ten feet from the edge of the abyss." 
123 



It was on Table Rock that Dickens, in 1842, penned 
his famed pen picture of Niagara, quoted elsewhere. 
It was of his sensation while standing on Table Rock 
Captain Basil Hall wrote: '' I may mention one curious 
effect ; it seemed to the imagination not impossible 
that the fall might swell up and grasp us in its vortex 
The actual presence of any very powerful moving ob- 
ject is often more or less remotely connected with a 
feeling that its direction may be changed ; and when 
the slightest variation would prove fatal, a feeling of 
awe is easily excited. At all events, as I gazed upon 
the cataract, it more than once appeared to increase 
in volume and to be accelerated in its velocity." 

It was probably from Table Rock that the Indians, 
of hundreds of years ago, gazed on the Fall and no 
doubt worshiped the Great Spirit of Niagara, whose 
abode they believed to be on Goat Island, Red 
Jacket expressed the wish that his portraits should 
be painted as standing on Table Rock, as it was 
there, in close association with Niagara, that he pre- 
tended to believe his spirit would forever linger after 
death. 

From near the edge of the Horseshoe, in the after- 
noon when the sun is shining brightly and you stand 
between it and the column of spray, you can see a 
beautiful rainbow effect. Now walk along the edge 
of the cliff until you reach the platform, protected by 
an iron railing, and enjoy the counterpart of the view 
you had when you stood on the Terrapin Rock. 

That view and the one before you are, in the 
order named, the most impressive views of the gran- 
deur of Niagara. 

124 



FIRST WHITE VISITOR. 

Tradition says that the first white man who ever 
saw the Falls, a Frenchman and a priest, was led to 
this spot, from up stream, by a chief, and in the words 
of an early chronicle — 

" From a jutting shelf of stone 
Saw Ni-ah-gah-ra, then unknown, 
Save to the Red Man's race alone." 

And added, which is as true now as it was then, fully 
300 years ago : 

" Ne'er has the scene which 'neath them lay, 
Been chronicled aright ; 
For no man, in a fitting way. 
By pen nor pencil, can portray 
The grandeur of the sight." 

THE HEART OF NIAGARA. 

After satisfying your delight at the scene before 
you, if the height of the water permits, and it usually 
does, go to what is the most interesting spot on the 
Canadian shore. Passing around the stone building 
which is the pumping station for the waterworks of the 
adjacent village, step out upon the rocks close to the 
edge of the Canadian Fall, where the water runs rapidly, 
though placidly, at our feet, a small quantity run- 
ning over the edge on our left, just enough to let 
us feel that we are standing on the very brink of 
Niagara. To the right, gradually increasing in depth 
from the shore, pours over the precipice the bulk of 
the waters of the Niagara River. Gaze down at the 
sheet of water and at the surface of the river in the 

125 



gorge below you, forever white with foam. Fol- 
low along with your eye until you reach the point 
where the falling column of water strikes the water 
level below. From here follow up with your gaze the 
ever-ascending cloud of spray and mist which has 
been rising unceasingly from the bottom of the Falls 
since thousands of years before man appeared upon 
this continent. Raise your eyes until you reach the 
brink of the Fall and you are gazing at the very center 
of the cataract," The Heart of Niagara," as some artists 
have been pleased to call it. Watch it as the falling 
waters catch this spray and hurl it into fantastic 
shapes crowned by all of the colors of the rainbow, 
and you can probably see the unique feature of the 
darting lines of spray which have been so wonderfully 
caught by the camera, during a visit made to this 
exact spot in August, 1900. 

THE DARTING LINES OF SPRAY. 

These darting lines of spray are caused by the 
force of the expansion of the air that is continuously 
carried, by the falling water, below the surface and 
there condensed. 

Let me quote Basil Hall, who was here in 1827, and 
who gave the first explanation of the beautiful phe- 
nomenon, and wrote learnedly and entertainingly 
about Niagara in many of its other scientific aspects. 

He went behind the sheet of water at the Canadian 
end of the Horseshoe Fall, where the barometer stood 
at 29" 72'. Of this experience he wrote: "This enor- 
mous cataract, like every other cascade, carries along 
127 



with it a quantity of air, which it forces far below the 
surface of the water — an experiment which any one 
may try on a small scale by pouring water into a tum- 
bler from a height. The quantity of air thus carried 
down by so vast a river as Niagara, must be great, 
and the depth to which it is driven, in all probability, 
considerable. It may also be much condensed by 
the pressure ; and it will rise with proportionate vio- 
lence both on the outside of the cascade, and within 
the shell or curtain which forms the cataract. 

"It had long been a subject of controversy, I was 
told, whether the air in the cave behind the Fall was 
condensed or rarified ; and it was amusing to listen to 
the conflicting arguments on the subject. All par- 
ties agreed that there was considerable difficulty in 
breathing ; but while some ascribed this to a want of 
air, others asserted that it arose from the quantity 
being too great. The truth, however, obviously is 
that we have too much water, not too much air." 

[These lines were written seven years before access 
was had to the Cave of the Winds, but are specially 
applicable to it, as that is the only sensible and 
feasible place to go behind the sheet of water at 
Niagara, whether for a scenic or a scientific purpose.] 

" I remarked another singular phenomenon, which 
I have not happened to hear mentioned before, 
but which is evidently connected with this branch of 
the subject. A number of small, sharp-pointed cones 
of water are projected upwards from the pool on the 
outside of the Fall, sometimes to the height of a 
hundred and twenty feet. They resemble in form 
some cornets of which I have seen drawings. Their 

128 



point, or apex, which is always turned upward, is 
quite sharp, and not larger, I should say, than a man's 
fingers and thumb brought as nearly to a point as 
possible. 

" The conical tails which stream from these watery 
meteors may vary from one or two yards to ten or 
twelve, and are spread out on all sides in a very curi- 
ous manner. The lower part of the Fall is constantly 
hidden from the view by a thick rolling cloud of 
spray, and I do not believe it is ever seen. Out of 
this cloud, which waves backwards and forwards, and 
rises at times to the height of many hundred feet 
abo\e the Fall, these singular cones, or cornets, are 
seen at all times jumping up. The altitude to which 
they are projected, I estimated, at about thirty feet 
from the top. The whole height being i6o feet, the 
perpendicular elevation to which these jets of water 
are thrown cannot, therefore, be less than no or 120 
feet above the surface of the pool." 

ABOVE THE FALLS. 

From here, too, gaze up the river and you will see 
the foaming, tumbling waters pouring down toward 
you, and you will then, perhaps, realize the force of 
the expression, " A mile of madly rushing, tumbling 
waters, threatening to engulf you," 

Retrace your steps to the electric railway and 
board a car going up stream. Buy a ticket to the 
Dufferin Islands and return, price fifteen cents each. 
The car now takes you along the water's edge to and 
along the whole length of Cedar Island and again to 

129 



the main land. A short way farther on you come to 
a crib work, filled with stone, placed so as to prevent 
the erosion of the land. A little way out in the 
stream is a flat black rock ; and, gazing over that, 
you see a little-known, but most wonderful, exhibition 
of the power of Niagara. Before you, and pouring 
towards you, come the tumbling rapids, and it is 
from this identical spot that the late Duke of Argyle 
described one of the ideal views of Niagara, a point 
but little known, but deserving of being visited by 
every lover of nature. As you read the following 
lines, glance up occasionally at the prospect before 
you, and you will appreciate the beauty and the force 
and the power of Niagara as perhaps they have never 
been described before, 

A SHORELESS SEA. 

*' The river Niagara above the Falls runs in a chan- 
nel very broad and very little depressed below the 
level of the country. But there is a deep declivity in 
the bed of the stream for a considerable distance above 
the precipice, and this constitutes what are called the 
Rapids. The consequence is, that when we stand at 
any point near the tdge of the Falls and look up the 
course of the stream the foaming waters of the Rapids 
constitute the sky line. No indication of land is 
visible ; nothing to express the fact that we are look- 
ing at a river. The crests of the breakers, the leaping 
and the rushing of the waters are still seen against 
the clouds, as they are seen on the ocean when the 
ship from which we look is in the trough of the sea. 

131 



It is impossible to resist the effect on the imagination. 
It is as if the fountains of the great deep were being- 
broken up, and that a new deluge were coming on 
the world. The impression is rather increased than 
diminished by the perspective of the low wooded 
banks on either shore, running down to a vanishing 
point, and seeming to be lost in the advancing waters. 
An apparently shoreless sea tumbling towards one is 
a very grand and a very awful sight. Forgetting, 
then, what one knows, and giving oneself to what one 
only sees, I do not know that there is anything in 
nature more majestic than the view of the Rapids 
above the Falls of Niagara." 

THE DUFFERIN ISLANDS. 

Following the bank of the river, the car reaches the 
Dufferin Islands, where a bend in the rapid current 
sweeping around these low-lying spots, produces one 
of the most beautiful sylvan retreats, filled with a 
number of so-called lovers' walks, and affording 
beautiful scenic effects and views of the tumbling 
rapids. Crossing over the second bridge, we reach 
the so-called Burning Spring, which is simply the out- 
pouring of a small amount of natural gas, which filters 
through the veins of the rock, from the not very far 
distant gas fields, which when lighted burns with a 
small bluish flame. It is not worth visiting, nor the 
payment of the admission fee. Do not let us continue 
our journey for scenic Niagara beyond this spot; but 
let us recall that on the banks of the river, not so very 
far above, was fought the Battle of Chippawa, July 

133 



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25, 1814; and at the mouth of the little creek, a mile 
above where we stand, stood the British Fort Chip- 
pawa, built in 1790, to protect the upper end of the 
Canadian Portage, whose lower end was at Lewiston, 
eight miles below. 

POINTS OF INTEREST. 

After viewing the beauties of the Dufferin Islands, 
the forest beauty on them and the scenic beauties of 
the rapids from them, get on the electric car again 
for the return trip to the Horseshoe Fall. On the top 
of the high bluff on our left is a gray stone building 
surmounted by a holy cross. This is the Loretto 
Convent, dedicated to '* Our Lady of the Cataract," 
to which was granted the privilege of pilgrimage by 
Pope Pius IX. 

Reaching the Horseshoe Fall, we again resume our 
trip, on the electric car, on the $i belt line ticket, 
bought when we started from the American shore. 
On our left about a mile back from the gorge is the 
battlefield of Lundy's Lane, July 5, 1814, referred to in 
our historical section. And opposite the Biddle Stairs 
on the American side, if you climb to the top of the 
bluff on our left, you will get the splendid view illus- 
trated on page 136. On our right, at the edge of the 
cliff, is the site of the "Old Indian Ladder," which 
was simply a tall cedar, its limbs lopped off about a 
foot from the main trunk and fastened perpendicu- 
larly to the face of the cliff, by means of which the 
Indians of long ago used to descend to the water's 
edge below, in order to fish. As late as 100 years 
135 



ago, a similar ladder, or tree, was placed for, and used 
by, white visitors and Indians on the American shore, 
just below the steel arch bridge. 

Later, on our right, we come to the road that winds 
down the bank to the old ferry landing, where the 
steamer " Maid of the Mist " touches, and up which, 
in the old days, the noted visitors to Niagara have 
climbed. Down it, June 24, 1883, walked Captam 
Matthew Webb to take the little row boat from which, 
nearly two miles below, he leaped into the river above 
the Whirlpool Rapids, with a "good bye, boys," to 
the boatmen, the last words of his ever heard by man. 

The top of the inclined railway down the bank is in 
the little building just beyond, on our right; and from 
below this, one has the best view of the steel arch 
bridge, over which we recently came. 

Just below the bridge, on the Canadian shore, on 
our right, is the site of Simcoe's ladder, a similar, 
but improved, ladder of the Indian-ladder type men- 
tioned above, erected in 1792, in order that the wife 
of the first Governor-General of Upper Canada might 
descend into the gorge. 

THE TUNNEL OUTLET. 

On the American shore, close below the pier of the 
bridge, a rushing current pours into the river at and 
below its surface. This is the outlet of the great 
tunnel, and the water pouring from it has developed 
50,000 horse-power in the power house, one and a 
fourth miles above (which we shall visit later on), and, 
having there done its work, has come through the 

137 



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tunnel, which is 150 feet underground, twenty-four 
feet high and nineteen feet wide, on a grade of seven 
feet to the hundred, to rejoin its original source. 

The large manufacturing plants of the Hydraulic 
Company, the earlier though not the larger of the two 
great companies whose development of water power 
has made Niagara so famous commercially, are directly 
across the gorge, the water from the surface canal, 
after having developed the power on the face of the 
cliff, falling in many graceful streams into the gorge. 

BLONDIN'S FEAT. 

The car ascends a slight elevation, and not far 
beyond its crest is the site of the Canadian end of the 
rope stretched in 1859 across the gorge ; on which 
rope, on several occasions, Blondin crossed and 
recrossed, performing many feats in midair — such as 
taking a small cook stove in a wheelbarrow to the 
rope's center, and there cooking and eating his dinner; 
lowering a rope to the steamer " Maid of the Mist," 
and drawing up and drinking the contents of a bottle 
of wine; crossing with empty baskets fastened to his 
feet (this dangerous feat being performed in honor of 
the Prince of Wales, now King Edward VII. of Great 
Britain, who sat on the Canadian shore at this point 
and greeted Blondin, as he reached the bank after the 
trip from the American shore); and, finally, carrying 
his manager, Harry Colcord (who is still living), across 
the gorge, sitting in a specially-prepared leather har- 
ness on his back, a ride such as no other man ever 
took, and he probably never wanted to take again. 

139 




Blondin, the pioneer 
and greatest of all rope- 
walkers, preserved his 
equilibrium on the rope 
by means of a long bal- 
ance pole, some three 
inches in diameter at 
the center and about an 
inch and a half at the 
ends, and some twenty- 
four feet in length. 

RAILROAD 
BRIDGES. 

Next comes into view 
the cantilever bridge, 
built in 1882, and close 
below it the steel arch 
railroad bridge. This 
latter was built in 1848 
as a suspension bridge, 
the first railroad suspen- 
sion bridge in this country, by John A. Roebling. It 
was remodeled in steel, as a suspension bridge, in 1880, 
and rebuilt as an arch bridge in 1897. It is worthy of 
note that the cables of the first bridge were carried 
across the gorge through the instrumentality of a kite. 
The contractor for the bridge offered a prize of $5 to 
any boy who would carry a string across by landing his 
kite on the opposite shore. Three days later a strong 
wind blew from the Canada shore. A large number 

140 



^HhBmb^^ '^! 



A ROPEWALKEI 



of boys from the American side took their kites, 
crossed the river at the ferry just below the Falls and 
walked down to the site of this bridge. Here they 
joined a number of Canadian boys, already at work 
for that $5. Finally, an American boy (now the 
Rev. Warren Walsh) landed his kite on the American 
shore and won the prize. By means of this kite 
string successive cords and ropes, each thicker and 
heavier than its predecessor, were drawn across, until, 
finally, a hempen rope of sufficient strength to pull 
one of the huge wire cables across spanned the gorge. 
Below this bridge, in the gorge, begin the famous 
Whirlpool Rapids, of which, and of their navigation 
and accidents, we shall refer at length as we ride 
alongside of them at the water's edge on the American 
shore, on the return trip. 

ROPEWALKERS. 

Just below these bridges another rope was stretched 
across the gorge, over which two or three persons 
made the trip from shore to shore, one of them being 
a woman. Luckily, yet strange to say, of all the 
daring persons who have had the nerve to attempt to 
cross the river's gorge on a suspended cable not one 
has fallen from his rope, nor has any fatality occurred 
to any of them ; though one man, at least, after start- 
ing on his journey, and getting about thirty feet from 
shore, repented of his rashness and turned around and 
scrambling back to land, abandoned the attempt. On 
this rope, also, one man rode across on a bicycle, 
whose wheels were grooved to fit the rope. 
141 



THE WHIRLPOOL. 

The car soon reaches the top of the bluff, rounds 
the bend, and we gaze down into the Whirlpool, that 
phenomenal spot, which if there was one place on the 
earth's surface that man would like to see without its 
covering of water, and its eddying whirlpools, it is its 
bed. Let us note that the inlet to the W^hirlpool by 
the so-called Whirlpool Rapids is at right angles to 
the outlet and that the water reaches this outlet 
largely by an undercurrent which runs under and 
directly across the path of the swirling inlet. In the 
Whirlpool may often be seen large masses of debris, 
among them often huge logs, which are caught in the 
eddies, then pointed upwards and sucked beneath the 
waves with apparently as little effort as one would 
handle a feather. Here, too, are often rescued the 
bodies of those unfortunates who by accident or by 
suicide take their last look on life at Niagara ; and 
sometimes a body will float round and round the 
Whirlpool, in its eddying currents, beyond the reach 
of man, for days at a time before it falls into the 
right current and in its course is brought near enough 
to the shore to be recovered. 

PRE-GLACIAL CHANNEL. 

A little farther on and the car runs on a long high 
trestle, and stops about the middle to enable you to 
gaze at the chasm and the forest below you. You 
are directly over what was thousands of years ago 
the old pre-glacial bed of Niagara River, which fol- 
lowed the course of the present river, though on the 

143 



surface, approximately to the Whirlpool, and then, in- 
stead of following its present channel to Lake Ontario, 
cut its way westward through this old gorge to old 
Lake Ontario at St. David's, some three miles to the 
west of Queenston Heights. The outlet and inlet 
of this old channel alone remain unfilled (with "drift" 
and soil) to prove this most interesting geologic fact 
connected with the course of the old river before the 
coming of the Ice Age. 

Following the curve of the bluff that skirts the 
lower side of the Whirlpool, we reach the crest over 
the outlet, and just beyond this spot, looking back, 
one gets a glorious view, over the edge, showing the 
inlet and the outlet of the Whirlpool.. 

BROCK'S MONUMENT. 

The car speeds along, at times near the edge, at 
times away from it, for three miles. Looking down 
from the edge of the cliff, on our right, the suspension 
bridge, over which we shall soon pass, appears far be- 
low us, and on the heights, on our left, rises the grace- 
ful Doric shaft called Brock's Monument, erected by 
a grateful country to his memory. It stands on 
Queenston Heights, and from its summit is to be ob- 
tained a wonderful panoramic view. The remains of 
the earthworks of old Fort Drummond, of the War of 
1812, are just behind it. The first Brock's Monument 
stood on the same site, but was a much less architec- 
turally beautiful structure than this one, A miscreant 
named Lett, incited thereto by his sympathy with the 
patriots and instigated by his hatred of Britain, blew 

145 



it up with gunpowder in 1840. Intending evil, he 
wrought good, for the present far handsomer shaft 
replaced the one he destroyed. 

BATTLE OF QUEENSTON HEIGHTS. 

We are on historic ground. On top of this hill, 
on its northern slope, and on the steep bank of the 
river, was fought the battle of Queenston Heights, 
October 12, 1812, which resulted in a victory for 
the British. Let us right here pay tribute to the 
farsightedness of the Canadian ofificials of long 
ago, who reserved in all their sales of land a strip 
along the river bank, one chain in width, for Govern- 
ment purposes. 

As the car turns and begins to descend the hill, 
look at the glorious panorama spread out around you. 
These heights were, in ages long gone by, the shore 
of Lake Ontario, before it receded to its present level. 
A little way down the heights, on the riverside, was 
the redan battery (British), captured by the Ameri- 
cans, recaptured by the British, and the Americans in 
it literally pushed over the bluff. At the outlet of 
the gorge, 300 feet below you, the river, after its 
tumultuous rush of four miles from the Whirlpool, 
emerges from its narrow path, broadens out, and 
winds its way peacefully to Lake Ontario, seven miles 
away. 

BROCK'S CENOTAPH. 

Half way down the hill the car turns and soon, on 
our left, near the car, appears a stone monument sur- 

147 




BiKjcK'b MojNUMEnt. 



rounded by an iron chain fence. It marks the spot 
where General Brock fell, and was set in place, with 
appropriate ceremonies, in 1861, by the Prince of 
Wales (now King Edward VII.), 

HISTORIC SPOTS. 

Farther along, on our right, note the ruined stone 
house. In it, in 1792, was printed the first newspaper 
published in Upper Canada, and to it the mortally 
wounded General Brock was carried for shelter. 

The car turns again and passes along a road on the 
face of the cliff, and in a moment we are on the sus- 
pension bridge. On this site was built, in 1856, the 
first bridge across the gorge here. The neglect to re- 
place the stay cables to the shores — removed one win- 
ter so that the ice jam might not injure them — left 
the bridge unprotected against a gale which blew 
down the gorge, in 1866, and demolished the road- 
way. The cables hung uselessly till 1899, when the 
present structure was built. 

In the left foreground, in front of us, are the so- 
called "Three Mountains," described by Father Hen- 
nepin, to make which he included the bank from the 
river to the level of the mainland below the mountain, 
the plateau half-way up the heights, and the top of the 
heights themselves. It was up these mountains that 
the anchors, rigging and cannon for the " Griffon " were 
toilfuUy carried. 

From the bridge look upstream at the river, with 
the waves piled up in the center, rushing in the last 
expiring throes of its madness. 
149 



On the heights, a-M'ie crest, on the American shore 
above, stood old For'c Gray in the War of 1812 ; while 
down the cliff, in former days, from the crest above to 
the water's edge, ran the first railroad built on this 
continent ; constructed in 1764 by the British. 



THE OLD INCLINE. 

During French rule, and after the British defeated 
and drove the French from this section, until 1763, 
all the provisions and munitions of war for the western 
posts, as well as the merchandise of the traders going 
west and their furs coming east, were carried up and 
down these heights on the American shore on men's 
backs, much of the work being done by Indians. Then, 
and even up to 1825, when the Erie Canal was com- 
pleted, on the American shore, just below the bridge, 
was the head of lake navigation. So great was the 
amount of provisions and munitions of war needed 
for and destined to be sent to her newly-acquired 
Western territory, that the British built this tramway 
up the bank here to facilitate and cheapen transporta- 
tion. Rough in construction, it was of enormous 
strength. On crude piers up the bank from the wharf 
to the summit were laid two sets of parallel logs, in 
straight lines, for the timbers did not conform to the 
surface of the ascent. On these ran two rude cars, 
connected by a rope, which passed around a drum on 
top of the cliff. As one car went up, the other came 
down. 

Properly loaded, one with goods going up, the 
other with furs to come d(nvn, the work at the wind- 

153 



lasses was not so great, and Indian braves, who other- 
wise would scorn manual labor, used to toil thereat 
all day, their pay being a pint of whiskey and a plug 
of tobacco (luxuries otherwise unobtainable by them) 
per day. Over this tramway, from 1764 to 1796, 
passed all the commerce, as well as boats, cannon, 
and military stores, the trade of half a continent. 
To-day, not even a trace of one of its piers can be 
found. 

It is a not uninteresting fact that to-day, at Niagara, 
after a lapse of over 135 years, the same general 
engineering plan, used for lowering visitors to and 
raising them from the slope below, is still in use. 

HENNEPIN'S LANDING. 

Looking down stream, you see the village of Lewis- 
ton, on the American shore, eighty years ago a place 
of great importance as the head of navigation, now 
merely a quiet, delightful historic town. Between 
that place and the bridge, on the American shore, is 
a ravine, famed as the spot where, in 1678, Father 
Hennepin and the crew drew up their little bark, so as 
to be out of the reach of the ice ; and just below this 
ravine is the site of the old Indian village Onguiaarha, 
the largest of the four Neuter villages on the eastern 
side of the river. 

THROUGH THE GORGE. 

Reaching the American shore, the car runs a few 
rods to the left, and there runs on to the track of 
another electric road, and starts upstream, on the 

155 



return trip, to the Soldiers' Monument. This most 
remarkable electric road was constructed under engi- 
neering difficulties, and has furnished an entirely new 
view of the lower Niagara Rapids. Its roadbed runs 
for five miles not far above the waters of the rapids, 
opening up views that were unobtainable until its con- 
struction. The interesting story of the geology of 
Niagara is fully told in our geological section. The 
glorious views of the scenery need not, indeed cannot, 
be described, but form a continuous and wonderful 
panorama, as the car passes along upstream against 
the current. 

All along its course, from Lewiston Heights to its 
present position, the form of the Fall was probably 
that of a horseshoe ; for this is merely the expression 
of the greater depth, and, consequently, greater exca- 
vating power of the center of the river, so says Prof. 
Tyndall. 

THE DEVIL'S HOLE. 

Some three miles up from the bridge is a chasm, 
high up on our left, called the Devil's Hole. The 
story of the ambush and massacre of the British by 
the Indians, on the cliff above, in 1763, at this point, is 
told in our historic section. Up in the chasm is a 
cave called ''The Cave of the Evil Spirit," and the 
early Indians foretold subsequent disaster to any one 
who dared to enter it. La Salle, in 1679, ^^^ spite of the 
Indians' warning, entered it, and to this trip the 
Indians attributed his subsequent misfortunes and 
murder, all within two years. 

157 



FOSTER'S FLATS. 

Next we come to the narrowest point of the whole 
river. The low land across the stream is known as 
Foster's Flats. Geologists have claimed that these 
flats are simply the debris left by the cataract when it 
was at this point, ages ago. It is claimed that here 
an island, similar in location to Goat Island, once 
existed. 

Before the Falls had reached this point, the water, 
of course, flowed many feet above the level of the high 
banks of the gorge here and extended in width all over 
the high bank beyond these flats. When the Falls had 
receded to this point the lower end of this island was 
a sheer cliff higher than the face of Goat Island 
to-day. After the Falls had cut their way past this 
island it remained merely an isolated rocky column, 
presumably some 250 feet high and presumably some 
200 yards across, with a rushing torrent below the 
Falls on each side of it. Its softer under strata was 
gradually undermined by the elements until there 
came a time when it fell to the westward, thus block- 
ing up the channel of the rapids on that side and 
forming these flats. 

This story, of course, belongs properly in our geo- 
logical section, as does the hypothesis that there were 
once three falls, one above the other, in the river, 
between this point and the heights below. 

THE WHIRLPOOL. 

Soon we reach the outlet of the Whirlpool, where 
the speed of the current, as well as the speed of the 

159 



Whirlpool Rapids above, is estimated at over twenty- 
eight miles an hour. Next, we look on the Whirlpool 
from its level shore, and appreciate the force and the 
height of the waves. Look across the pool itself at 
this point and see the ravine, already referred to as 
the pre-glacial outlet of the old Niagara River 
at the Whirlpool. Rounding the bend and starting 
upstream, we see what is to many the most beautiful 
sight at Niagara, the Whirlpool Rapids, Here the 
waters are piled up in the center of the channel high 
above the level at the edges, the crests of the waves 
being often forty feet above it. 

This short stretch of wildly-tumbling rapids is the 
scene of some of the most thrilling incidents and acci- 
dents at Niagara. 

A WONDERFUL VOYAGE. 

In 1861, the little steamer " Maid of the Mist " was 
an unsuccessful venture, and her owners had an offer 
for her, if they would deliver her on Lake Ontario. 
Joel Robinson, the hero of Niagara, undertook to 
pilot her from the Falls to the lake. According to 
his promise, he started at i o'clock in the afternoon, 
June 6, 1861. The steamer lay at her wharf, on the 
American shore, just above the railroad suspension 
bridge. The shores above and the bridge were black 
with people. Two men, the engineer and fireman, 
had agreed to accompany Robinson on this fearful 
trip. At the hour named, Robinson took his place at 
the wheel and the lines were cast off. He rang the 
bell and the boat started toward the Fall, Running 
161 



up the river a short distance, he turned the boat's head 
sharply down stream, and like an arrow she shot 
under the bridge and into the rapids. At the first great 
curling wave she received a terrible buffeting, first on 
one side and then on the other, her smokestack being 
knocked over. She righted herself, and sped on, 
faster than any boat had ever traveled before. The 
current ran thirty miles an hour, and, with her engines 
and impetus, she must have reached a speed of nearly 
forty miles an hour. The engineer, who stood at the 
cabin door, was knocked to the deck. Robinson 
abandoned the wheel, over which he said he had not 
the slightest imaginable control, threw his arms around 
one of the cabin posts and held on for life. The 
fireman, imprisoned beneath, fell on his knees, and 
clinging to the stair railing prayed as he had never 
prayed before. He afterwards said he believed it was 
to this prayer that the three men on the boat owed 
their salvation. The steamer passed unharmed into the 
Whirlpool and rode on an even keel. Robinson again 
seized the tiller and pointed the boat's head for the 
outlet. She obeyed her helm and plunged once more 
into the rapids and, steered mainly by the current, 
dashed along through all those four miles of rapids, 
past which we have just come, until she at last glided 
on to the quiet surface of the river, and Robinson 
guided her to the dock at Queenston on the Canadian 
side. During the loo years of Queenston's existence 
as a port of entry, she was the first boat that ever 
came to the dock from upstream. The collector of 
the port of Queenston at that time was a Scotchman, 
and not given to sentiment. He rushed down to the 

162 



wharf and insisted that Robinson take out entrance 
and clearance papers. He did so, and the collector 
was not out his fees, though the manifest shows that 
the steamer carried "no passengers and no freight." 
The boat was taken to Lake Ontario and sold, and 
ran for many years afterwards. When Robinson 
returned to his home he looked twenty years older 
than when he started on that trip. Thereafter he was 
a changed and subdued man. He had passed safely 
through an ordeal of an unknown kind. He had 
stood face to face with eternity. He had been saved 
from a power against which man's strength and inge- 
nuity was absolutely powerless. He grew aged and 
reverend in that trip of fifteen minutes. He said that 
his sensations were what he imagined might be those 
of a large bird, with outspread wings, sailing swiftly 
onward and downward through space. 

CAPTAIN WEBB'S LAST SWIM. 

Through these same rapids, in 1883, swam Captain 
Matthew Webb, entering the water from a boat just 
above the cantilever bridge, the banks and bridges 
being thronged with people to witness his daring feat. 
Rapidly he passed under the bridges, swimming high 
out of water; when he struck the point where the two 
waves from either shore meet, he bravely dived under 
the high crest of the meeting point and came up 
safely below it. Opposite to the little house, at the 
foot of the cliff, on the Canada side, about one-third 
of the distance to the Whirlpool, he was plainly seen, 
bravely swimming. Then he disappeared from view 
163 



and was seen no more alive. His body was found 
some days later in the river at Lewiston, a long cut 
on the head indicating that he had been hit by the 
edge of some rock as he swept by, thus being rendered 
unconscious and drowned. He is buried in Oakwood 
Cemetery at Niagara. 

It had been the commonly accepted belief that the 
river in these rapids, while very much shallower than 
where the surface is broader and placid nearer to 
the Falls, was yet of an unobstructed depth of many 
feet. But the fact that Captain Webb, who swam in 
the middle of the swiftest current, no doubt struck 
against the edge of a sharp rock (as proved by the cut, 
some three inches long, found on his head, and made, 
as physicians who saw it declared, 
before death), led to the belief 
J? W^ ^^^^^ ^^^ bowlders in the channel, 

w" ^ Mttk beneath the rushing waves of 

these whirlpool rapids are very 

f'^^H| j much nearer the surface than 
5HI ' had been supposed. Indeed, the 
claim has been made, and pho- 
tographs shown in testimony 
thereof, that at exceptionally low 
water the tops of rocks have 
been clearly seen right in the 
middle of these rapids. 

There have also passed suc- 
cessfully through these rapids, 
the so-called Whirlpool naviga- 
tors, who, in an extra strong, tall, 
narrow, well-padded within, oak 
164 




barrel, with lower end weighted, consigned them- 
selves to the current and reached the Whirlpool in 
safety. Graham did it. So did Hazlett and Potts ; 
and later. Potts and Sadie Allen made the trip to- 
gether, the lattertheonly woman who ever took the risk. 

In 1882, one Kendall, a Boston policeman, wearing 
as an aid only a cork life-preserver, is said, and be- 
lieved, to have been the only man who ever swam 
these rapids and lived. 

After passing under the two railroad bridges — both 
marvels of engineering skill — and noting their mas- 
sive foundations, turn around and look down stream, 
viewing the bridges themselves above and the stretch 
of the rapids, which we have just passed, below. 

ON THE FACE OF THE CLIFF. 

From this point, on a gradual but steady rise, ex- 
tending for about a mile, the electric car runs on a 
sort of rocky shelf on the face of the cliff, and from 
this position are obtained unsurpassed views of the 
wooded shores of the gorge and of the river below the 
Falls as it runs on its quiet course to the Whirlpool 
Rapids. Let us also note that the first steamer, 
" The Maid of the Mist," extended her trips down to 
a landing located on the American shore, not very far 
above the cantilever bridge, and the passengers de- 
scended to this lower landing by means of a roadway 
down the bank, which we cross in the electric car. 

It was from this very dock that the steamer " Maid 
of the Mist " started on her perilous but successful 
trip, just described, to Lake Ontario. 
165 



It was at a point near the center of the river, and 
but a few rods above the cantilever or upper raih'oad 
bridge, that Captain Webb sprang into the water from 
a rowboat to begin his fatal attempt to swim the 
Whirlpool Rapids. 

For the convenience of passengers, and w^e are in- 
clined to think also for their security, and especially 
their peace of mind, the trips of the present steamer 
end very much farther up from the rapids. The car, 
after reaching the top of the cliff, runs through the 
city of Niagara Falls and lands us at the Soldiers' 
Monument, which was the point at which we boarded 
it when starting on our trip to Canada. 

NIAGARA FROM BELOW. 

From the monument walk down the board walk to 
the one-story stone building near Prospect Point. De- 
scend the slope either by the stairs or by the inclined 
railway. Passing out of the shelter building to the 
left, you are near the foot of the American Fall. If 
the wind is blowing up the river, make your way along 
dry paths and over dry rocks close to the edge, where 
you will hear but little of the roar even then. Glance 
upward and you will begin to appreciate, as you have 
not done on any part of our trip, what is the real 
meaning of the height of Niagara. In the spray at 
your feet, so runs the legend, dwells the " Maiden of 
the Mist," ever disporting herself and eagerly waiting 
for the spirits of those unfortunates who, either by 
accident or suicide, lose their lives over this Fall. 
Over the pile of moss-covered rocks, in front of and 
167 




The Maiden ok hie Misj 



Copyright. 



at the base of this Fall, each winter forms an ice 
mound — in severe weather many feet in depth, as the 
spray, ever falling and ever freezing, slowly, but surely, 
adds both to the size and height of this milk-white 
mound. 

THE ICE BRIDGE. 

In the river, opposite the incline, forms almost each 
winter a jam of ice from shore to shore, and extending 
from the mouth of the tunnel upstream, sometimes 
covering the entire river up past the American Fall, 
so that it has often been possible to walk from where 
you are standing on the ice in front of the Ameri- 
can and Luna Island Falls, and thus to reach and 
climb the Biddle Stairs up to Goat Island. Two ex- 
cellent views of such an ice bridge, showing the 
wonderful inequalities of its surface, are given here- 
with. It is called an ice bridge simply because it is 
possible to cross on it from shore to shore. 

THE MAID OF THE MIST. 

Down stream from the shelter house, at the foot of 
the incline, is the landing spot of the steamer "Maid 
of the Mist." At this spot, in the old days before the 
first steamer plied here, was the end of the ferry, 
where for many years people were conveyed to and 
from the Canada shore in large row boats; and 
from 1 86 1, when the little steamer was taken through 
the rapids to Lake Ontario, as told above, till the 
present steamer was built in 1887, row boats were 
used and patronized rather for the novelty of the 
169 




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;ter. 






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trip, as for must of that time the suspension bridge 
furnished an easier trip across the gorge. 

The trip on the " Maid of the Mist," described as 
the most wonderful water-trip in the world, should 
not be omitted under any circumstances. Board the 
little steamer. Leaving our wraps in the cabin we slip 
on a waterproof or oilskin hood and cloak, which so dis- 
guises one that their best friend would hardly recog- 
nize them when they reach the deck of the steamer. 
Starting from her dock the steamer coasts up directly 
in front of the American Fall, and we appreciate the 
height and beauty of this Fall, as seen from this point, 
as it is impossible to get it in any other way. The 
water seems as if pouring from the clouds. 

Beyond this Fall and out in front of the little Fall, 
of which a most beautiful reproduction is given in the 
frontispiece of this volume, we observe figures clad 
in uncouth garments walking along the temporary 
bridges. These people are "doing" the Cave of the 
Winds, even as, if you have followed our itinerary, 
you have already done. 

The geology of Niagara is nowhere better seen, 
nor can it be studied to greater advantage, than as 
one gazes from the deck of this steamer at the strata 
of rock along the Goat Island base, for here there are 
less trees to obstruct and impair the sight than prob- 
ably at any other place. Beyond the Goat Island 
Cliff are the few threads of water at the eastern end 
of the Canadian or Horseshoe Fall, and at the point 
where we see the iron railing stood the Terrapin Tower. 
From the steamer you appreciate more than ever that 
those rocks are the center of Niagara. 
175 



As the boat forces its way against the current, we 
enter upon that " Sea of White " formed by the ever 
restless waves dashed into foam, and gazing up, it 
seems as though the water poured from the heavens. 
No pen-picture can do justice to this scene, though 
the reproductions that the camera has obtained are 
equaled only by the view itself. Farther and farther 
over these white waves the boat pushes its way along ; 
its passengers, though protected by their oilskin coats 
from serious harm, are in the midst of a cloud of spray, 
which is so complete as almost to shut out the view of 
the Falls themselves. It is a sensation which is 
equaled nowhere else. We are approaching, as it 
were, the " Fountains of the Great Deep," and when 
the boat has been propelled forward to a point where 
the force of the current prevents her further progress, 
because it equals the power of her engines, she grace- 
fully turns her prow in a circle and floats rapidly down 
stream, emerging once more into a recognizable 
position on the waters of the mighty gorge. From 
here, following the line of the Canadian current, she 
passes down stream again past the American Fall, 
stops at her Canadian dock and then turning her prow 
toward the American shore moors again at the dock 
from which she started. Divesting ourselves of our 
oilskin clothing we start forth again, looking like 
rational human beings. Rumor says that after the 
summer travel of 1901 is over, history will repeat it- 
self, after a lapse of forty years ; and that the steamer 
"Maid of the Mist," number two, which will not then 
be required at this point, as one boat in her half-hourly 
trips can carry all those who will want to go, she will 
177 



imitate her predecessor and make the trip through 
the Whirlpool Rapids, the Whirlpool and lower Niag- 
ara Rapids to Lake Ontario, never to return. 

THE POWER HOUSE. 

Ascending the slope, walk to the Soldiers' Monu- 
ment, and there board that electric car, which will 
take you to the power house of the Niagara P'alls 
Power Co., the center of the greatest electrical devel- 
opment of power on earth; a large, massive, but not 
architecturally beautiful, granite structure, 450 feet 
long, sixty feet high, with a plain slate roof. Over the 
entrance, carved in stone, is the single bit of ornamen- 
tation on the building, the seal of the company. 

On entering the power room (whether in the narrow 
gallery which crosses it or on the floor) you are at 
one end of a huge apartment, which occupies the 
entire main building from wall to wall and from floor 
to roof. On the right, extending in a straight line 
almost the entire length of the room, are ten huge 
dynamos, each producing 5,000 electrical horse power, 
their mushroom-shaped iron tops revolving at a speed 
of two miles per minute. To the left of the center 
of the building, equidistant from the ends of the room, 
are two elevated platforms, where, day and night, in- 
spectors keep watch of the records of the power gen- 
erated by the dynamos. Beneath these platforms, 
carefully enclosed, are innumerable wires and devices, 
by means of which this wonderful force, which we call 
electricity, is made to record its own story of the 
amount of power produced. 
179 



"Touch not, handle not !" is the only absolutely 
safe rule for the visitor to observe toward everything 
in this marvelous room. 

High up, not far below the lower edges of the roof, 
supported at either end by, and traveling on, ledges on 
the inner sides of the two side walls, is the electric 
crane, capable of handling fifty tons, which moving 
lengthwise on the walls and sideways on its steel 
traveling beams is enabled to reach any portion of 
the building. 

Beneath the floor is the pit, in which are set the 
wheels and penstocks, and the shafts, whose lower 
ends are connected directly with the turbines, and 
whose upper ends terminate in the dynamos them- 
selves. This pit is cut out of the solid rock, is 420 
feet long by 21 feet wide, and 180 feet deep. 

Down the pit, to near the bottom, extend the ten 
iron tubes or penstocks, each seven and one-half feet 
in diameter, by means of which the water is taken 
from the surface canal to just below each turbine, and 
then, by an upward curve of the penstock, is delivered 
to the turbine through its lower surface. By this 
m.eans the weight of each column of water, estimated 
at 400,000 pounds, serves to support the weight of the 
corresponding turbine and shaft and dynamo, thus 
lessening the friction. The turbines are set vertically, 
transmitting the power of revolution direct to the 
dynamo above without the intervention of any 
gearing. 

Below these turbines, this pit extends downward 
some forty feet and into this space pours the water, 
after having done its work on the turbines. One end 

iSi 



of the bottom of this pit is connected with the main 
tunnel by a lateral tunnel, and thus through the great 
tunnel, which is merely a tail race, the water finds its 
way back to the river, in the gorge below the Falls. 

On the other bank of the inlet canal a duplicate of 
this power house, with its underlying pit and machin- 
ery, is in process of construction, and is nearing com- 
pletion. This will develop another 50,000 horse 
power, and when all of this shall have been developed 
nearly the full capacity of the main tunnel will have 
been utilized. 

The small stone building across the inlet canal from 
the first power house is the " Transformer House." In 
this the current direct from the dynamos is raised or 
lowered to the different voltages required for the use 
of the various consumers, especially the current sent 
to Buffalo, which for long transmission must be raised 
or "stepped up " to a high voltage, to be again low- 
ered or " stepped down " at the other end to the 
required potential. 



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Skal ok Xia(;.\ra I'owkk ('()>n'ANV. 
183 



HISTORIC NIAGARA. 

THE NAME NIAGARA. 

The word Niagara is a household word the world 
over, and is the synonym for the typical waterfall. It 
is of Indian origin, for, of course, the Indians once 
inhabited all this section, and much of the nomencla- 
ture of Western New York is directly traceable to 
their occupancy thereof or to their language. 

It comes to us from the Iroquois, who derived it 
from the Neuters, whom they annihilated as a tribe, 
the few survivors being adopted by the Senecas. It 
is not improbable that the Neuters, in turn, derived it 
from some prior tribe of the aborigines, so that its 
origin is lost in the dim past of Indian lore. 

Over fifty known variations of the name are known, 
though for over 200 years the present spelling has 
been in general, and for the past 150 years in almost 
universal, use. Older forms, found in books of the 
seventeenth century, are : Onguiaarha, Ongiara, Och- 
niagara, lagara, and Ni-ah-gah-ra, the latter accented 
sometimes on the second syllable. 

The Neuter Nation, farther back than whom we 
cannot trace the etymology of the word, would seem 
to have pronounced it Ny-ah-ga-rah, their language 
having no labial sound, and all their words being 
spoken without closing the lips. The Senecas pro- 
nounced it with the accent on the third syllable, and 
the French adopted it from them as nearly as the 
184 



idiom of their language would allow. The pronunci- 
ation, Nee-ah-ga-ra, occasionally heard nowadays, 
was also probably in common use later on, while in 
more modern Indian dialect the sound of every vowel 
being always given in full, Ni-ah-gah-rah (accent on 
the third syllable) seems to have been the accepted 
pronunciation, and is, no doubt, the really correct ac- 
centuation. The modern word, Ni-a-ga-ra, with the 
accent on the second syllable, is the now invariably- 
used form of the word ; but it is of more recent 
origin and devoid of the beautiful flowing articulation 
which was one of the greatest beauties of the Indian 
language, as exemplified by the very few survivors 
(and these of a great age, far beyond the Psalmist's 
three-score-and-ten years) of a rapidly-passing race. 

As to the meaning of the word, there is great doubt, 
and eminent philologists differ materially as to its sig- 
nificance. The commonly-accepted interpretation, 
"The Thunderer of the Waters," is the most poetic. 
A more prosaic meaning is said to be " Neck," typi- 
fying the river as being a connecting link between 
the two lakes. A recent suggestion translates one of 
the forms of spelling (Ochniagara) as " bisecting the 
flats," this referring to that part of the river between 
Lewiston and Lake Ontario. The level land between 
the heights at Lewiston and Lake Ontario (which 
was at one time a part of the bed of this lake) being 
the " flats," '' bisected " by the river, whose surface in 
this portion is some forty feet below the level of the 
land, and could not, therefore, have been seen by the 
migrating or traveling Indians until they reached its 
very banks. 

185 



Niagara appears to have been the name of a tribe, 
given by Drake as " Nicaragas," with the added note, 
" once about MachiHmakinak, joined the Iroquois 
about 1723." This statement would seem to show that 
these Nicaragas were a portion of the Neuters (who 
were conquered by the Senecas in 1651); this remnant 
then escaping to the Northwest, and that seventy years 
later their descendants returned and joined the Iro- 
quois, among whom, in 165 1, the other survivors of the 
Neuters had been absorbed. 

It was the Indian custom to name their tribes and 
the smaller subdivisions thereof from the most im- 
portant natural feature of the country they inhabited, 
or to give their natal name to such feature. In sup- 
port of this, witness the well-known names of these 
lakes and rivers : Huron, Michigan, Cayuga, Seneca, 
Erie, Oneida, Onondaga, and Mohawk, named for 
the tribes that dwelt along their borders. So the 
deduction is that the subdivision of the Neuters who 
dwelt along the Niagara River took their name from 
it and its famed cataract. Certainly, these were the 
chief natural features of the territory, and their prin- 
cipal village, situated just below the end of the lower 
rapids, and under the heights, bore the same name, 
for it was called Onguiaahra. The Neuters are re- 
ferred to by Father L'Allement, in the " Jesuit Rela- 
tion " of 1641, published in 1642, as "the Neuter Na- 
tion, Onguiaahra, having the same name as the river." 

THE NIAGARA RIVER. 

The Niagara, one of the world's shortest, but also 
one of its most famous, rivers, is thirty-six miles long, 
186 



twenty-two miles from Lake Erie to the Falls, and 
fourteen miles from the Falls to Lake Ontario. 

Its sources are the basins of the four great upper 
lakes, whose watershed is over 150,000 square miles. 
The size and depth of these lakes are : 

Superior, . . 365 miles long, 160 miles wide, 1,030 feet deep. 

Huron, . . 200 " " 100 " " 1,000 " 

Michigan, . 320 " " 70 " " 1,000 " 

Erie, . . . 290 " " 65 '' " S4 " 

The river's depth, of course, varies. The deepest 
channel from Lake Erie to the flails, along the center 
of which runs the boundary line between the United 
States and Canada — as determined under the treaty 
of Ghent, which ended the war of 181 2 — lies to the 
west of Grand Island and to the east and south of 
Navy Island, with an average depth of twenty feet of 
water. Below the Falls, and extending down to near 
the cantilever bridge, the depth is 200 feet, as deter- 
mined by United States Government surveys. Under 
the railroad bridges the depth is only about ninety 
feet. In the Whirlpool Rapids, as calculated, it is 
only forty feet. The depth of the Whirlpool is esti- 
mated at 400 feet. From there to Lewiston, it is 
estimated at sixty feet ; and from Lewiston to Lake 
Ontario at over 100 feet. It is unlike any other river. 
It is a full-grown stream at the first moment of its 
existence, and is no larger at its mouth than at its 
source. 

Its width varies. It is a little less than one-half of 
a mile wide at its source, one mile just above the 
Falls, one-eighth of a mile above and at the outlet of 
187 



the Whirlpool, and only about one-sixteenth at its 
narrowest point, at Foster's Flats in the gorge. 

It is but one link in the chain by which the waters 
of the great inland seas of fresh water are carried to 
the ocean. From the outlet of Lake Ontario to the 
ocean, the river is called the St. Lawrence ; which 
name, by the way, one hundred years ago, was com- 
monly given to what we now call the Niagara River. 

One hundred smaller lakes and many rivers and 
countless springs contribute their waters to these four 
lakes, and thus to the volume of the Niagara River, 
whose farthest springs are perhaps 1,500 miles distant. 

The descent of the Niagara River, from lake to 
lake, is 336 feet, of which 216 feet are in the rapids 
above the Falls and in the Falls themselves ; distrib- 
uted as follows : 

Feet. 
From Lake Erie to the commencement of the rapids 

(twenty-one and a half miles), the descent is, . . 15 

In the half mile of rapids above the Falls, 55 

In the Falls themselves, 161 

From the Falls to Lewiston (seven miles) gS 

From Lewiston to Lake Ontario (seven miles), ... 7 

"336 

It is stated that back in the " forties," during a 

heavy southern gale, the water rose to an estimated 

increase of six feet in the depth of the water at the 

brink of the Falls. 

Below the Falls there is said to be an undercurrent 
of far greater velocity than the surface current, and 
to this is attributed the fact that bodies going over 
the Horseshoe Fall are not usually seen until they 
reach the Whirlpool. 

188 



The river is one of comparatively changeless vol- 
ume ; it is not intermittent. Neither summer's drouth 
nor winter's cold seriously impairs its flow ; though, 
on unusual occasions, when, for brief periods, the 
water is high, a rise of one foot in the river above the 
Falls means a rise of sixteen feet in the river directly 
below — caused by the abrupt turn of the river's chan- 
nel at the Falls and the lessening of the width from 
about a mile at the beginning of the rapids above to 
about a quarter of a mile at the base of the Horse- 
shoe or Canadian Fall. 

There is also a rumor (unaccounted for, but in gen- 
eral terms verified by the poorly-kept records of the 
last sixty years) that there is a flux and reflux of the 
waters of the Great Lakes, and, therefore, of the 
Niagara River, which reach the maximum every 
fourteen years, and the minimum in the correspond- 
ing middle periods. 

THE FALLS THEMSELVES. 

" Of all the sights on this earth of ours which tour- 
ists travel to see — at least of all those which I have 
seen — I am inclined to give the palm to the Falls of 
Niagara. In the catalogue of such sights I intend to 
include all buildings, pictures, statues and wonders of 
art made by men's hands, and also all beauties of 
nature prepared by the Creator for the delight of His 
creatures. This is a long word ; but as far as my 
taste and judgment go it is justified. I know no 
other one thing so beautiful, so glorious, so pow- 
erful." — AntJioiiy Trollope. 
iSy 



Niagara, the ideal waterfall of and the grandest 
natural sight in the universe, is also the greatest in 
immensity and in the amount of water that pours over 
its brink ; although there are waterfalls in our own 
and in foreign lands that are higher. 

Niagara is deceptive in its height. Viewed from 
above, either on the American or Canadian shore, or 
on Goat Island, one does not appreciate its altitude ; 
but viewed from below, at any point near the falling 
sheet, one begins to comprehend its immensity. 

Edmund Burke never saw Niagara. Had he seen 
it, he would have modified his famous statement — " I 
am apt to imagine that height is less grand than 
depth, and that we are more struck at looking down 
from a precipice than looking up at an object of equal 
height ; but of that I am not very sure " — by making 
an exception in favor of Niagara Falls. The approach 
to most falls is from below, and we get an idea of 
them as of rivers pitching down to the plains from the 
brow of a hill or mountain ; but at Niagara the first 
view is always from the level of the upper river, or 
from a point above it. The Falls are in latitude 43° 
6' west, longitude 2^ 5' west from Washington ; or 
longitude 79^ 5' west from Greenwich. 

The height of the Canadian Fall, over which flows 
about seven-eighths of the entire volume of water, is 
159 feet. 

The height of the American Fall is 165 feet, or 
about six feet higher than the Horseshoe Fall, the 
difference in levels being caused by the greater de- 
clivity in the bed of the river in the Canadian 
channel. 

190 



The Canadian Fall is about 3,000 feet in width along 
the brink ; the American Fall about 1,100 feet ; and 
the Goat Island cliff along the gorge is about 1,200 
feet long. 

The estimated volume of the Falls in horse power 
is about 3,000,000 ; in tons, 5,000,000 weight per 
hour, or about one cubic mile of water per week. 
Estmiates thereof in barrels and in cubic feet have 
been given in the description of the Terrapin Rocks 
on Goat Island. 

The rapids above the American Fall descend forty 
feet in half a mile. The rapids above the Horseshoe 
Fall descend nearly fifty-five feet in three quarters of 
a mile. 

The top of the column of spray, that is ever rising 
from the gorge, can be seen on a clear day for many 
miles. It is said it has been so seen at a distance 
of fifty miles — that is, from Toronto, Canada — but 
this may well be doubted. 

The roar of the Falls, it is claimed, has been heard 
for many, many miles — these claims have usually 
been made years ago by travelers. It must be borne in 
mind that the roar could doubtless be heard a much 
longer distance if the wind was blowing from the Falls 
toward the listener ; and, again, imagination or a de- 
sire to think one hears such a sound might add many 
miles to the actual distance. Again, let us remember 
that four score years ago this section was compara- 
tively free from commercial noises. There were then 
no sounds from factories, nor the hum of city life ; 
there were no steam whistles nor locomotives, nor 
trolleys, nor telephone and telegraph wires ; all of which 
191 



to-day are constantly hereabout emitting sounds and 
noises. So, doubtless, when this section was a com- 
paratively unbroken wilderness, eighty years ago, the 
roar of Niagara could have been heard by the simple 
ears many miles farther than it can be heard to-day. 

In connection with the roar of the Falls, it is inter- 
esting to relate that, in 1897, a huge telephone trans- 
mitter was placed at the entrance to the Cave of the 
Winds (the other end of the American Fall was tried, 
but the results obtained were not as satisfactory), and 
each evening, between 7 and 10 o'clock, for a period 
of a month, the wire connecting this receiver with the 
local telephone office was put in direct connection, 
over the wires of the Telephone Company, with New 
York City, and hundreds of people paid a small fee 
each to listen to the roar of Niagara, 450 miles away ; 
and at the same time power was nightly transmitted 
from the Niagara Power House over an ordinary tele- 
graph wire to the same room in New York City, and 
there illuminated electric lamps and furnished current 
(less than half a horse power) to operate a miniature 
model of the powerhouse itself and the ad jacent territory. 

A loud roaring of the Falls is locally said to indi- 
cate coming rain. This is true, as the rains here- 
abouts come from the southwest, and a southwest 
wind, which naturally brings the sound of the Falls 
over the city of Niagara Falls, is the prevailing wind. 

The recession of the Falls is told of in the geological 
section, but we should note that the apex of the Horse- 
shoe Fall, which is the point of the cataract's great- 
est erosion, has within the memory of men now living 
receded much more than 100 feet. 
192 



Hennepin speaks of, and his picture of Niagara 
(the first one known), pubHshed in 1697, shows, a third 
fall, at Table Rock. It seems to be true, as gathered 
from records, that at that time a large rock, situated 
near the western edge of the Canadian Fall, created a 
third fall as the water coursed around it ; but this 
rock has long, long since disappeared, disintegrated 
by the elements and its fragments washed away by 
the stream. 

Indian tradition has told that the Spirit of Niagara 
has demanded, and always would demand, a yearly 
sacrifice of at least two human lives. It would seem 
that in the old days the Neuters estimated that at least 
one of these two lives would be furnished by accident, 
as they used to choose and give but one, the fairest 
maiden of the tribe, each year ; but as a fact, on an 
average, more than two lives are annually lost at, and 
by reason of, Niagara. Of the many deaths that have 
occurred in the waters at Niagara — some by accident, 
some by suicide, some by murder — it is to be noted 
that of the bodies that go over the Horseshoe Fall 
the most of them are subsequently recovered ; 
while bodies carried over the American Fall are 
seldom found, as they are caught and lodge among 
the line of rocks that lie at the base of that Fall, and 
are gradually dismembered by the force of the torrent. 

But while human lives were thus sacrificed, and 
while bloody inter-tribal wars have raged on its banks, 
and later on, as late as in the War of 181 2, descend- 
ants of the same stock have met within sight of the 
Falls in bloody international battles ; in antithesis, 
let it be recalled that, in 1861, Bishop Lynch of 

193 



Toronto consecrated the Falls of Niagara to the 
Blessed Virgin of Peace. 

Charles MacKay thoroughly comprehended the 
Falls when he wrote: "To one, Niagara teaches 
turbulence and unrest ; to another, it whispers peace 
and hope. To one, it speaks of time ; to another, of 
eternity. To the geologist, it speaks of the vista of 
millions of years. But to me, if I can epitomize my 
feelings in four words, Niagara spoke joy, peace, order, 
eternity." 

The most commonly asked question in regard to 
the Falls is, "Did they answer your expectations?" 
One of the best answers ever made to this question 
was the reply of a gentleman who had just been at 
Niagara, "they infinitely exceeded them." And in 
reply to the further question, " Do you think I shall 
be disappointed in them?" he answered, "Why, no, 
not unless you expect to witness the sea coming down 
from the moon." 

Hartman and Mansfield, respectively, voiced the 
judgments of mankind when they said, "It is impos- 
sible for any description to exaggerate the glory and 
loveliness of Niagara. Nay, more, the longer you 
stay the greater must be your admiration"; and " In 
all the world there is but one Niagara, and all the 
world should see it." 

THE FALLS FIRST SEEN BY WHITE MEN. 

It would be most interesting if we could know the 
name and nationality of the first white man who ever 
gazed upon Niagara and the exact date of his visit. 
194 



In all likelihood he was a Frenchman, but there is no 
human probability that we shall ever know his identity. 

Some student has advanced the idea that Samuel 
de Champlain, the founder of Quebec, and the first 
Governor-General of New France, who in his " Des 
Sauvages," published in 1603, made the earliest known 
reference to Niagara, was the first white man who ever 
saw them. Champlain, in his 1603 voyage, certainly 
did not get as far west as Niagara. While he was on 
Lake Ontario, years after, the universal concensus 
of opinion is that he never saw the Falls. Some 
one of the early French " Coureurs de Bois," or fur 
traders, may have been the man ; but, in the words of 
a noted local historian, " there is no name with which 
we can conjure with more probability of being correct, 
as having been the first paleface to gaze upon the 
great cataract, than that of Etienne Brule." 

Brule was Champlain s Indian interpeter and con- 
fidant. He was on Lake Ontario in 16 15, making, at 
Champlain's direction, " the long detour " to the 
Indians in what is now southern New York, and this 
journey may have been around the western end of 
Lake Ontario. No doubt he knew of the cataract, of 
which his master had heard and referred to in his 
book twelve years before. If he was in the neigh- 
borhood, it is not improbable that he asked his Indian 
guides to lead him to this wondrous fall. 

According to a legend, the first white man to behold 
the Falls was a French priest, who was led one moon- 
light night by an Indian chief to Table Rock. 

When the chief pointed to Goat Island and said it 
was the abode of the Great Spirit, and that no one 
195 



except warriors could reach it alive, the priest 
denounced the statement as false. The chief offered 
to test this priest's belief by taking him at once to the 
island, and the priest agreed. The chief led him up- 
stream to a point above the head of the rapids, where 
they embarked in a canoe and soon reached the 
island, on which the priest stepped, and after worship- 
ing his Maker, demanded the fulfillment of the chief- 
tain's promise to become a follower of God if the priest 
trod the isle alive. The chief demanded a further 
proof, namely, that he would leave the priest on the 
island alive, and if when he returned the next noon 
he found him alive he would believe in his God. The 
priest agreed, only asking that he wait twenty-four 
hours, and that the next day, at sunset, he and his 
tribe should go to Table Rock. At that time he (the 
priest) would stand on the island's shore at the end 
of the big fall. When they saw that he was alive, if 
they would become followers of God, they should 
kneel, and across the gorge he would bless them. The 
chief paddled his bark canoe swiftly upstream. 

The next evening, at sunset, the priest went to the 
edge of the Fall, and the Indians, who were on Table 
Rock, seeing that he still lived, knelt down and the 
priest — 

" Spake the word, 

Though it was not heard, 
And raised his hands, 
As God commands, 

And lifted his eyes to Heaven. 
Thus in the way the church decrees, 
To supplicants, tho' afar, on their knees, 
Was the Benediction given." 
196 



Then the priest, so runs the legend, in imagina- 
tion again stood in a holy church, for — 

" It was three long years since he 
Had stept within a sacristy, 

A wondrous church it was indeed, 
By Nature's changeless laws decreed, 
Tho' man reared not the structure fair, 
All churchly attributes were there ! 

The gorge was the glorified nave, 
Whose floor was the emerald wave. 
The mighty fall was the reredos tall. 

The altar, the pure white foam. 
The azure sky, so clear and high, 

Was simply the vaulted dome. 

The column of spray 
On its upward way. 

Was the smoke of incense burned, 
And the cataract's roar. 
Now less, now more. 
As it rose and fell. 
Like an organ's swell. 

Into sacred music turned. 

While, like a baldachin o'erhead. 
The spray cloud in its glory spread, 
Its crest, by the setting sun illumed, 
The form of a holy cross assumed." 

Father de la Roche Dallion is the first white man 
known to have been on the Niagara River. He 
crossed it near the site of Lewiston, in 1626. But 
though we have no record of any prior visit of a white 
man, it is more than probable that such had been 
made. 

197 



INDIAN OCCUPATION OF THIS TERRI- 
TORY. 

We do not know the name of the particular tribe 
that inhabited all this section of country prior to 1600. 
Soon after that date Champlain speaks of the Neuter 
Nation as living hereabouts. How long they had 
then existed as a nation, or how long they had 
then dwelt here, is unknown. So, before that date, 
whether the Indians who claimed the occupancy of 
these lands were a section of the Neuters (a section 
perhaps then, pretty certainly three or four decades 
later, known as the Nicaragas), or the predecessors of 
the Neuters, we can only refer to them by the broad, 
comprehensive term, "aborigines." 

From about 1600-1650 the Neuters claimed, and in 
Indian mode of life occupied, all the lands on the north 
of Lake Erie from the Detroit River to the Niagara, and 
in this territory they had twenty-six villages. Their 
lands also extended for some twenty miles directly 
east of the Niagara River, and in this latter territory 
were four more of their villages, the most easterly 
being near the site of the present City of Lockport, 
N. Y., near which Indian mounds, a charnel pit full of 
human bones, and old forts or fortifications have been 
discovered and implements found. The most famous 
and probably the largest of their villages in the terri- 
tory adjacent to the Niagara River, on both sides, 
was named Onguiaahra, and was located very near 
the river bank, where the village of Lewiston now 
stands. The land in and close about Lewiston is re- 
plete with evidences of Indian occupation, in the 

198 



nature of mounds and graves ; and many stone im- 
plements and ornaments have been unearthed there, 
although, as yet, the locality has not been thoroughly 
studied nor systematically searched. 

On the south shore of Lake Erie, at its eastern end 
( their lands then probably adjoining the lands of the 
Neuters that lie east of the Niagara River on the 
north ), was the territory of the Eries, who were prob- 
ably the same tribe called both the Kah-Kwas and 
Cat Nation. 

The Neuters derived their name from the fact that, 
although a warlike tribe, and often engaged in battle 
with other tribes, they lived at peace with the dreaded 
Iroquois, who dwelt east of them, and also with the 
fierce Hurons, who dwelt on and beyond their western 
boundaries. 

These two latter confederacies were deadly enemies, 
yet Indian custom (which was Indian law) decreed 
that the warriors of these two nations, meeting in the 
wigwam, or even on the territory of the Neuters, must 
meet, and they did meet, in peace. The Neuters 
were also called by these two tribes " Attouander- 
onks," which means a people speaking a little differ- 
ent language. Their dialect was different from that of 
any other neighboring tribe, though understood by 
all of them. 

But neutrality, as between two hostile Indian tribes, 
was no more a tenable position than it has often 
proved itself to be as between inimical nations of 
civilized white men. 

In 165 1, the Senecas, the westernmost as well as the 
fiercest tribe of the famous Iroquois Confederacy, 
199 



on some slight pretext, suddenly declared a war of 
extermination against the Neuters, invaded their terri- 
tory, attacked and demolished their villages, killed 
most of the warriors, and annihilated the Neuters as a 
nation, the few survivors being incorporated among 
and adopted into the Senecas. 

By this conquest the Senecas claimed title to the 
lands of the Neuters, although it does not appear that 
they ever exercised much, if any, actual ownership 
( unless by granting treaty rights ) over any of the 
lands which lay west of the Niagara River,which was by 
far the largest, in fact almost the whole, of the Neuter's 
territory. This claim on the part of the Senecas, of 
ownership by conquest, more especially of that part 
of the Neuters' land lying east of the Niagara River, 
seems to have been acquiesced in by the other Indian 
tribes ; and over this land, lying in what is now West- 
ern New York, the Senecas continuously and jeal- 
ously exercised all the rights of ownership ; although 
it was fully a hundred years before they actually 
occupied any part of it, save as camp sites for fish- 
ing and hunting, for they continued to occupy their 
original territory in the Genesee Valley. 

La Salle, in 1678, dared not start to erect a fort or 
storehouse on the site of Fort Niagara, at the mouth 
of the Niagara River, nor construct his vessel, the 
" Griffon," above the Falls, until he had obtained the 
official consent of the Seneca chiefs. 

De Nonville, in 1687, built his fort on the site 
of Fort Niagara ; but his army, which had just defeated 
( but not conquered ) the Senecas in the Genesee 
Valley, was taken to the spot to erect it ; and no 

200 



sooner had that army left than the Senecas besieged 
the fort, and held its occupants imprisoned within its 
walls for months, until almost the entire garrison had 
died. And when a fort, under the guise of a store- 
house, was built by the French at Lewiston, in 17 19, 
it was only after twenty years continued preparation 
and intrigue therefor, that the consent was obtained 
from the Senecas, and then only through the great 
influence of Joncaire, a Frenchman, but an adopted 
child of the Senecas, and for his personal use and 
profit, so that he personally had to reside in it and 
conduct it as a trading house. 

In 1764, the Senecas' title to all this section was offi- 
cially recognized by Great Britain ; for at the great 
treaty held at Fort Niagara, by Sir William Johnson, 
the Senecas ceded to her a strip of land four 
miles wide, that is, two miles on each side of the 
Niagara River, and extending from Lake Erie to Lake 
Ontario; and at the same time they gave to SirWilliam 
Johnson personally all the islands in the Niagara River. 

Even until after the Revolution the Senecas held an 
undisputed basic title to all the land on the eastern 
shore of the Niagara River, and, in 1780, granted two 
square miles to the Tuscaroras, a tribe driven by war 
from their original sites in North Carolina ; and in 
the sale of the vast tract of land in Western New 
York by Massachusetts to Phelps & Gorham, in 1788, 
it was on the condition that the Indian ( that is, Seneca) 
title be first extinguished. 

It is not necessary to discuss the rights, how given 
and by what tribe, to the Mississagas (who once oc- 
cupied the land on the western bank of this river from 
201 



Queenston Heights to Lake Ontario); nor those to the 
Chippawas, who removed from their ancient seats in 
Virginia to the western bank of the Niagara just 
above the Falls, where to-day stands a small village 
bearing their tribal name. Both of these small tribes 
have gone, and none of their descendants remain 
about their ancient abodes. 

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FRONTIER. 

The Niagara Frontier, as the territory lying on both 
banks of Niagara River from Lake Erie to Lake On- 
tario is known, is a wondrous section. It is wondrous 
in many aspects ; wondrous in its geology ; wondrous 
in its scenery ; wondrous in its botany : wondrous in 
its hydraulic and electrical developments ; wondrous 
in its engineering successes ; wondrous in its litera- 
ture ; and famous, if not wondrous, in its history. 

The ownership of this section may be given as 
follows : 

The Aborigines, -1600 

The Neuters, 1600-1651 

The Senecas, 1651-1679 

Seneca ownership, French influence predomi- 
nating, 1679-1725 

Seneca ownership, French occupation, .... 1725-1759 
Seneca ownership, British occupation, .... 1759-1764 

British ownership and occupation, 1764-1783 

Eastern Bank, American ownership, British occupa- 
tion, the Hold-Over Period ; Western Bank, 
Canadian ownership and occupation, .... 1783-1796 
Eastern Bank, American ownership and occupation ; 
Western Bank, Canadian ownership and oc- 
cupation, 1796-1901 

202 



The historical associations connected with the ter- 
ritory along this famous river are numberless. 

From the date of the first white man's entrance 
upon the scene, during the next fifty years visited by 
a few daring priests in their fruitless efforts to spread 
the Gospel among the Neuters ; later, the advent of 
the French, first officially in peace by La Salle, later by 
their hostile armies ; the steadily increasing influences 
and control of the French ; the incessant, but, for 
many years, futile efforts of the British to drive out 
their hated rival ; the swift and phenomenally success- 
ful campaign by the British in 1759, which suddenly 
made them the masters in place of the French ; the 
loss, twenty-four years later, at the close of the Revolu- 
tion, by the British of all her territory lying east of 
the river ; the stirring scenes during the International 
War of 181 2, and the Canadian internal Patriot and 
Fenian rebellions, make a list of noted events, mostly 
martial, to which (as well as to many peaceful, but 
equally important events) we can refer in but the 
briefest way. 

Father Dallion, who was on the lower Niagara 
River in 1626, presumably then said the first mass in 
this historic region. 

The White Man's history of this section may be 
said to begin with La Salle's first visit here in 1669, 
when he heard the roar of the Falls from Lake Ontario, 
and probably visited them. In December, 1678, he 
sent a vessel, on which was Father Hennepin, from the 
eastern end of Lake Ontario to the Niagara River, 
and a month later followed them himself. Five 
miles above the Falls he built the "Griffon," the first 
203 



vessel, other than a Indian canoe, that ever floated on 
any of the upper lakes. He also then built, at the 
mouth of the river, the wooden Fort Conti, the first 
white man's fortification hereabouts, which was ac- 
cidentally destroyed by fire the same year. 

In 1687, De Nonville, after defeating the Senecas in 
the Genesee Valley, came with his army to the mouth 
of the river, and built there the fort named after him- 
self, ''of poles with four bastions." He left 100 men 
in it, and as soon as the army had gone, the Senecas 
besieged it. After eight months of continued siege 
only twelve of the garrison were left. The next year, 
on the demand of the Senecas, abetted by England, 
the French were compelled to dismantle and abandon 
this coveted fort. 

In 1 7 19, Joncaire, a Frenchman, but an adopted 
child of the Senecas, of whom it is recorded that " he 
spoke with all the good sense of a Frenchman and 
with all the eloquence of an Iroquois," at the instance 
of France, obtained the consent of the Senecas to 
erect a cabin for himself on the river. He located it 
on the site of Lewiston, soon enlarged it into a 
"trading house"; made it the center of a vast terri- 
tory for trade in furs, guns and brandy, and in due 
time made of it a fort, two stories high, forty feet long 
by thirty feet wide, built of logs, musket proof and 
palisaded, of which he was the commandant. As a 
fort it controlled the portage, which ran from it to the 
river, two miles above the Falls, over which passed 
practically all the fur trade of the great west. 

In 1725, the Senecas consented to the erection of a 
stone house on the site of the present Fort Niagara. 

204 



Tradition says, when the materials were ready, all 
the Indians of the vicinity were asked to join in a 
hunt. On their return, after three days, the stone 
walls of the house had been raised to a height of over 
six feet, and thus the fort which France had so long 
desired at this point was an accomplished fact, 
Joncaire's trading house, having served its purpose 
as a means of erecting a permanent fort, was allowed 
to go to decay, and the first and the most important 
'^ trading fort " ever built on this frontier became 
merely a memory. 

From 1725 on, additions, both in houses and in 
fortifications, were constantly made to Fort Niagara. 
Great Britain, who had unsuccessfully opposed the 
erection of the "trading fort," became annually more 
and more anxious for the possession of the existing 
fort, and, between 1753 and 1758, planned four 
expeditions for its forcible capture, but none of them 
ever reached it. 

About 1745, France erected a storehouse and a stone 
blockhouse at the upper end of the portage, and, in 
1750, extended the end of this portage half a mile up 
stream and erected there a permanent fortification, 
called Fort Little Niagara, it being a dependency of 
that strong and important fort. 

Under the guidance of Pitt, Britain's 1759 campaign 
in North America completely overthrew French power 
on this continent. General Prideaux commanded the 
expedition against Fort Niagara, and besieged it. 
France had fortified, strengthened and enlarged it, 
until it was a formidable fortress, garrisoned by over 
700 men, and embracing within its earthworks (the 
205 



earthworks of to-day are the remodeled works on the 
lines of those of 1759) some*ight acres. 

The seige parallels were built by the British on the 
lake shore, east of the fort, and are easily located, if 
not tracable, to-day. Sir Wm. Johnson succeeded to 
the command when Prideaux was killed by the 
bursting of one of his own coehorns. 

Under orders from Pouchot, Fort Niagara's com- 
mander, on the arrival of the British army. Fort Little 
Niagara, on the upper river had been abandoned and 
burnt, and its garrison added to that of Fort Niagara. 
Pouchot also sent to the western French posts for aid. 
A large force hastened from the west to save Fort 
Niagara, France's most important fort west of the 
outlet of Lake Ontario. Pouchot had directed that 
this relieving force land on the western shore and 
march down to Lake Ontario, and then cross the river 
to Fort Niagara. Instead, it landed at Fort Little 
Niagara, then in ruins, and hastened over the portage 
on the eastern shore. Sir Wm. Johnson, apprised of 
its approach, met it in battle, a mile south of Fort 
Niagara, and quickly routed it. The defeated French 
fled back over the portage, reembarked in their boats 
and hastened westward, having first set fire to two 
vessels, that were in nearly finished construction, at 
Navy Island, above the Falls, in order to prevent their 
falling into the hands of the victorious British. From 
this circumstance the place where these vessels lay at 
anchor is still known as Burnt Ship Bay. This victory 
compelled the surrender of Fort Niagara, and Great 
Britain at last had a fort at the long-coveted spot. 
The surrender of Quebec soon followed, and French 
206 



power in North America was actually at an end. 
After the treaty of peace had been signed, France did 
not possess a foot of land in Eastern North America, 
where, at least in its northern and western parts, she 
had held supreme sway for over half a century. 

The British were now absolute masters of the 
Niagara frontier and took steps to secure the alle- 
giance of those Indian tribes who had been allied with 
the French interest. 

Fort Schlosser was built at the upper end of the 
portage, to replace the burnt Fort Little Niagara, in 
1760 ; for a fort there, a dependency of Fort Niagara, 
was a necessity, to protect the portage and the goods 
in transit over it and awaiting shipment at its upper 
end. o 

Up to 1760 the transportation of all goods, furs, 
military stores, etc , over this portage, seven miles in 
length, from the head of navigation on Lake Ontario, 
that is, from Lewiston, to the river above the Falls, 
had been done by the Seneca Indians. Just prior to 
1759 over 200 Senecas were employed by the French 
in this way. Of course, each man's burden was small, 
about 100 pounds in weight. When the British became 
the masters, they planned cheaper transportation, by 
using wagons, thus permitting the heavy freight to be 
put up in very much larger packages. This, of course, 
largely superseded the employment as carriers of the 
Senecas, who, as a result of their employment, had 
been the firm friends of the French. Thus embit- 
tered against the British, they readily listened to the 
advances of Pontiac, when he planned his widely- 
extended conspiracy against them. 
207 



A contract had been made with John Stedman by 
the British to widen the portage and smooth its road- 
way for the use of the wagons. After two years' 
arduous labor this work was completed in 1763. The 
first wagon train from Fort Niagara to Fort Schlosser, 
escorted by about 100 soldiers and led by John Sted- 
man, passed over it on September 13, 1763. The next 
day it returned, probably laden with furs. When the 
point now called the Devil's Hole, where the road 
runs close to the precipice, was reached, the Indian 
war whoop was heard, and from the forest on the higher 
land on their right came volleys of musketry, fol- 
lowed by an onslaught of Senecas, tomahawk in hand. 
The horses and oxen that drew the wagons were 
seized and led away by the Indians. The soldiers, 
who were not killed at the first fire, were tomahawked 
and scalped, and their dead bodies, together with the 
wagons, were tumbled over the cliff into the huge 
cavity. Only three of the 100 escaped. One man 
jumped over the cliff, and landing in the branches of 
a tree beneath concealed himself there. A drummer 
boy escaped in like manner. An Indian seized the 
bridle of the horse that Stedman rode. With his 
hunting knife, Stedman severed the bridle and, spur- 
ring his horse to full speed, dashed back up the road 
to Fort Schlosser, escaping unharmed from the shower 
of bullets aimed at him. 

The British had maintained a small fort at the lower 
end of the portage. On hearing the sounds of mus- 
ketry the entire garrison thereof, consisting of two 
companies, hastened up the hill and along the road, 
rightly guessing the cause thereof, by reason of their 
208 



knowledge of Indian nature. But the Senecas, ex- 
pecting this action, had halted a little way north and 
ambushed and attacked this relieving force with such 
success that only eight men escaped. These fled to 
Fort Niagara, whose commandant, with a large force, 
hastened to the scene. But the Senecas had gone, 
and nearly a hundred mangled, bloody and scalped 
corpses, some on the portage and the balance in the 
Devil's Hole chasm, told the story of this fearful 
tragedy, planned by Indian cunning and unerringly 
executed with Indian ferocity. 

Britain's first systematic attempt to better and to 
cheapen transportation had cost her loo lives. 

Stedman, who escaped from the massacre, claimed 
that the Senecas marveled so at his good luck, attrib- 
uting it to the special protection of the Great Spirit, 
that they gave him all the land bounded by the Ni- 
agara River and the line of his flight from the Devil's 
Hole to Fort Schlosser. Stedman subsequently seems 
to have cleared and occupied a small portion of this 
vast grant (which embraced 5,000 acres), including in 
his cultivation a portion of Goat Island ; but when his 
heirs set up the claim, as against the State of New 
York they could produce no proof of the grant. They 
claimed the deed had been left with Sir William John- 
son, and was burnt when his residence was destroyed 
by fire. The Senecas do not seem to have acknowl- 
edged the grant, for right after the time when Sted- 
man claimed it was made they deeded all that land, 
beside much more, to Great Britain. Stedman's heirs 
contested New York's title to this land, but were 
beaten and finally ejected. 

209 



Knowing full well the just retribution that would 
be meted out to them by Britain for this massacre, 
the Seneca chiefs laid the blame on the younger war- 
riors, and in the fall sent a large deputation to Sir 
William Johnson to sue for forgiveness. 

Britain had the control of this section, but she 
wanted more than that, She wanted the submission 
and the friendship of the Senecas and the undisputed 
title to the land where the portage was. Here was 
her opportunity, and Sir William Johnson improved it. 
?le was too good a diplomat to demand a life for a 
life, and agreed to forgive the Senecas for the mas- 
sacre on condition that a strip of land fourteen miles 
in length and four miles in breadth, lying along and 
on both banks of the Niagara River from Lake 
Ontario to above Niagara Falls (thus including the 
whole length of the portage) be given to the British 
crown. The Senecas had no alternative but to con- 
sent, and they agreed to complete the transaction the 
next spring at Fort Niagara. 

Sir William Johnson now invited the Indian tribes 
of practically all of North America to meet him at 
Fort Niagara the next summer, and preparations were 
made to send a British army to the W^est to awe the 
Indians of that section and to conquer all who did not 
by treaty accept British sovereignty. Partly the hope 
of reward, partly the fear of punishment, induced the 
presence of representatives of all the tribes ; and 
when, in June, 1764, Bradstreet's army landed at Fort 
Niagara, Sir William Johnson accompanied it. He 
found there the greatest gathering of Indians from 
all over North America that had ever assembled. The 
210 



Senecas, alone, to Britain the most important tribe of 
all, were not represented. They had not meant to keep 
their promise when they made it. A message was 
sent to them at their homes on the Genesee River, 
that unless they at once came and ratified their agree- 
ment Bradstreet's army would march against them and 
annihilate them. 

General Bradstreet, forewarned by the " Devil's 
Hole Massacre," had made preparations to fortify the 
Niagara portage before his army crossed it. Captain 
John Montresor had reached Niagara some time be- 
fore and by the time the army arrived had constructed 
along the portage eleven redoubts, or blockhouses, 
some i,ioo yards apart, between the brow of the 
mountain at the head of navigation and Fort Schlos- 
ser, and these had all been garrisoned and equipped 
with a cannon each. Bradstreet had also asked Sir 
William Johnson to obtain the Indians consent to the 
erection and maintenance of a depot of provisions, 
in other words a fort, at the source of the Niagara 
River, as a base of supplies for his army on its west 
ward march. 

Montresor was ordered to build it, and selected a 
site on the western (now Canadian) shore of Lake 
Erie. Sir William then obtained the assent of the In- 
dian tribes at the treaty gathering to its erection. 
Backed by the army, it mattered little to him whether 
the Senecas, who were not then present, but who were 
the owners of the land, assented or not. In a month, 
Montresor reported that Fort Erie was "defensible." 

Meantime the Senecas, awed by the threat of 
annihilation, appeared at the gathering, and on Sir 

211 



William's formally asking their consent to the erection 
of Fort Erie, they, of course, consented. Sir William 
asked even more. He asked that now their deed of land 
to Great Britain, as promised the preceding fall, be en- 
larged to include a strip two miles wide, on each bank 
of the river from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, thus 
more than doubling the size of the grant. The 
Senecas were obliged to consent, and thus paid to 
Great Britain, for her forgiveness for the Devil's Hole 
massacre, nearly 100,000 acres of land, located at 
what was then to Britain the most important point in 
America. 

As the Senecas had scalped about 100 British at the 
Devil's Hole, they paid 1,000 acres for each scalp. 
For them it was cheaply-bought forgiveness. The 
Senecas also at this time gave to Sir William Johnson 
personally, " as a proof of their regard, and in re- 
membrance of the trouble they had given him," all 
the islands in the Niagara River, covering some 
20,000 acres. Fearing a loss of influence with them 
if he refused, he accepted the gift ; but, as the military 
law of that period forbade the acceptance by officers 
of gifts, he at once transferred them to the British 
crown. Then Goat Island, probably to-day the most 
noted piece of land in the Western Hemisphere, passed 
directly to the British crown, and that not by con- 
quest nor by treaty, but by gift, practically " hush 
money." 

Besides the erection of these twelve forts, one large 
and eleven small, Montresor at the time built, on 
designs furnished by some other engineer, the so-called 
"Old Lewiston Incline," the first railroad constructed 



in America. It ran from the wharf which he built at 
the water's edge, at the head of the navigation of ].ake 
Ontario, straight up the cHff to the top ; was pro- 
tected Ijy a blockhouse above and by a small fort at 
its foot. Over it, during the period 1 764-1 796, 
passed substantially all the vast amount of freightage, 
both military and commercial, between the Atlantic 
seaboard and the Great West. 

No other event of military importance marked 
British rule on this frontier until the Revolution. 
Fort Niagara controlled all the country east and north 
for some 200 miles, south for over a hundred miles, 
and west to the Mississippi. 

The War of the Revolution, in actual hostilities, 
never reached the Niagara frontier, but Fort Niagara 
was a plague spot to the Colonists. Here John Butler 
and his son Warren (the latter of infamous memory) 
and Joseph Brant made their headquarters. Opposite 
the fort, on the Canadian shore, were quartered the 
famous marauders, Butler's Rangers, and their bar- 
racks are still standing. 

At Fort Niagara were planned, and from it started 
out, all those murderous and devastating expeditions 
that ravaged Western and Central New York and 
Northern Pennsylvania during the Revolution, and to 
it these savage parties, both whites and Indians, 
returned from these expeditions, with their prisoners, 
scalps and booty, to exult and to carouse. 

Among the expeditions planned at, and executed 
from. Fort Niagara were those that devastated Cherry 
Valley and Wyoming, the latter perpetuated in poetry 
by Campbell's " Gertrude of Wyoming." 
213 



So unbearable had these assaults become that, in 
1779, General Washington sent General Sullivan to 
conquer the Senecas and to capture Fort Niagara. 
He defeated, but did not conquer, the Senecas in the 
Genesee Valley, and they fled to the protecting guns 
of Fort Niagara, Had Sullivan obeyed his orders he 
would have easily captured this fort, for he would 
have found it feebly garrisoned and surrounded by a 
cowed and famished throng (some 5,000 in number) 
of Indians ; and the Revolution might have been 
shortened. But, assigning lack of boats for trans- 
portation and lack of provisions for his troops as 
reasons, he did not attempt to reach the objective 
point of his expedition, and returned East. Fort 
Niagara remained in British hands, a place of intrigue, 
imprisonment and moral degradation, till the end of 
the Revolution. 

At the close of that war, Great Britain retained five 
posts on what, by the treaty, was American soil, as a 
guaranty for the fulfillment of certain rights pledged 
by the Colonies to those residents who had sided with 
Britain, known as the U. E. or United Empire Loyal- 
ists. Niagara and Oswego were two of these posts, 
the others being in the West. 

When the treaty was signed it was anticipated that 
they would be so held but a short time. In fact, they 
were held for thirteen years, a period known in history 
as "The Hold Over Period." One route by which 
these U. E. Loyalists emigrated from the United 
States led by Fort Niagara, and fully 10,000 people 
went to Canada between 1783 and 1790 across this 
frontier. 

214 



After repeated requests for the evacuation of these 
five posts, to which no atttention was paid, Jay's 
Treaty with Great Britain, in 1794, stipulated for 
their evacuation by June, 1796. Fort Niagara was 
evacuated by the British on August 1 1, 1796, and part 
of her garrison crossed the Niagara River to Fort 
George, which had been built, but only as a small 
fort, directly opposite Fort Niagara. 

A portage around the Falls, on the Canadian side, 
between Queenston and Chippawa, was also finished 
this year, to replace for British use the portage on the 
American side, which now passed from their control. 
This Canadian portage was never extensively used, as 
Canada's western posts were never of great impor- 
tance. A blockhouse at its upper end, named Fort 
Chippawa, was built at the same time and garrisoned. 

In 1792, General John Graves Simcoe was appointed 
the first Governor-General of Upper Canada. Believing 
and hoping that the American Colonies would soon be 
reconquered by the British, and that Fort Niagara 
would never be surrendered, he located his capital at 
Niagara, at the mouth of the river opposite to and 
controlled by the guns of Fort Niagara. Here he 
made his residence, and here it still stands, though not 
on the original site, a long, low, one-story wooden 
building called Navy Hall. Here, in 1792, he opened 
the first session of the Parliament of Upper Canada, 
one of whose acts was to declare against the existence 
of slavery in that province. When it was certain that 
Fort Niagara was to be evacuated, Simcoe removed 
his capital from its frontier location, across the lake, 
to York, now Toronto. 

215 



The dispute between Massachusetts and New York 
in regard to the ownership of what is now Western 
New York was settled by the former taking the title 
and the latter the jurisdiction thereof ; but on the 
American Niagara Frontier a strip of land known as 
the " Mile Strip," being one mile in width back from 
the river, and extending from Lake Ontario to Lake 
Erie, was exempted from the sale made by Massachu- 
setts to Phelps and Gorham in 1788 ; the most of which 
land later passed to Robert Morris, and later to the 
Holland Land Company. Lots in the mile strip were 
offered for sale by New York in 1804, and settlement 
along this frontier began at once. 

Fort Niagara was continually garrisoned by the 
Americans ; and Fort Erie, which had been rebuilt 
on a near-by site about 1781, and on still another 
site about 1807, was likewise garrisoned by the 
British. 

For the struggle known as the War of 181 2, in 
which the differences between the United States and 
Great Britain were bound sooner or later to terminate, 
some advance preparations were made on both sides 
of this frontier. As noted, the Canadians, in 1807, 
rebuilt Fort Erie with stone buildings and the 
customary earthworks ; but they built only the part 
facing the river, leaving it practically unprotected on 
the land side. About 1804, Fort George, at the mouth 
of the river, had been enlarged as to buildings and 
surrounded with earthworks ; and about 1809, General 
Brock doubled its capacity and strength, by the erec- 
tion, on its south side, of extensive earthworks and 
structures. 

216 



The Niagara Frontier felt not only the first but 
the continued effects of the War of 1812. On the 
declaration of war in that year the British were the 
better prepared on this frontier. The Americans 
hurried troops and munitions here, and General Van 
Rensselaer established his camp at Lewiston. The 
British built Fort Drummond, an earthwork on 
Queenston Heights, and strengthened Fort Erie ; and 
the Americans built a like structure, Fort Gray, on 
Lewiston Heights, and also a battery, named Fort 
Tompkins, on the river shore in Buffalo. 

The Americans, in October, 181 2, crossed the river, 
invaded Canada and captured Queenston Heights and 
Fort Drummond. General Brock sent reinforcements 
from Fort George and hurried to the heights in person. 
In one of the charges, to retake the heights, he fell 
mortally wounded. 

The British reinforcements recaptured Queenston 
Heights, killing many Americans, and in their fury 
bayoneted and hurled them down the steep, partly 
wooded, face of the cliff. A large body of American 
Volunteers, who were in camp at Lewiston, looked on 
and basely refused to cross the river to aid their 
countrymen, and the disastrous battle of Queenston 
Heights ended in a decided victory for the British. 

During the battle, Fort George and Fort Niagara 
bombarded each other, and the following month 
another lengthy exchange of shots occurred. The 
river front, on both sides, was also fortified ; in fact, 
on the American shore for a mile south of Fort 
Niagara and on the Canadian side for about a mile 
north of Fort George, there was an almost continuous 
217 



line of batteries, and there were several batteries on 
both shores between Queenston Heights and these 
forts. A cannonade between two forts, three- fourths of 
a mile apart, lasting a whole day, during which 4,000 
shots were fired, but in which few men were killed 
or wounded and neither fort very seriously damaged, 
shows the inefficiency of the artillery of that date. 

In May, 1813, transports having been built and the 
American fleet having arrived, an attack from the lake 
was made by the American troops, under cover of the 
guns of Fort Niagara and of the fleet. The British 
batteries at and beyond the mouth of the river were 
carried, and inside of an hour Fort George and all its 
dependent batteries were in the Americans' control. 
They held it till December of that year, when, on the 
approach of a strong British force, the incompetent 
McClure decided to abandon it. He sent the garrison 
over to Fort Niagara, and gave the people of the 
village of Newark (around Fort George) twenty-four 
hours to move out. Then he set fire to that village 
and it was destroyed, the inhabitants suffering bitterly 
from the cold. The act was unnecessary, particularly 
as McClure left the buildings and fortifications of Fort 
Creorge intact, and failed to remove a large number 
of tents and provisions. 

On entering Fort George and seeing the ruined 
village of Newark, Colonel Murray said to his com- 
mander. General Drummond, " Let us retaliate by fire 
and sword." "Do so, swiftly and thoroughly," was 
the reply. 

General McClure went to safe headquarters at 
Buffalo, leaving Captain Leonard in command at Fort 
218 



Niagara. Under the circumstances, an attack on that 
fort might have been expected at any time. Yet a 
week later, when the British by night crossed the river, 
five miles above, and silently marched to the fort, car- 
rying all the paraphernalia for an assault, they found 
the gates open and unguarded. Its commander, Leon- 
ard, was at his own home, four miles away. 

The sentinels were seized, and such little resistance 
as could be offered by men rushing from their beds 
was quickly overcome. Few shots were fired. The 
bayonet was the weapon, revenge the watchword. 
Little, if any, attempt was made to curb the British 
soldiers' ferocity, and many of the garrison, especially 
those in the hospital, were bayoneted after all resist- 
ance had ceased. About twenty Americans escaped, 
eighty were killed, fourteen wounded (this figure 
tells the story of revenge), and 240 made prisoners. 
Once in control of the fort, the British fired a 
cannon as a signal, and Riall (a fit leader for blood- 
thirsty whites and Indians), who was in waiting, 
crossed to Lewiston and commenced the work of 
devastation. 

In turn, Lewiston, Youngstown, Manchester (now 
Niagara Falls) and Schlosser were reduced to ashes, 
and, on December 31st, the village of Buffalo was 
burnt. The American frontier was in ruins and the 
inhabitants fled for their lives. 

The year 18 14 was to witness more carnage. In 
July the Americans appeared before Fort Erie and 
demanded its surrender, and its commander surren- 
dered it and 140 prisoners without opposition, to British 
disgust. 

219 



So here, at the source of the river, on British soil, 
the Americans held a British fort ; while thirty-six 
miles away, at its mouth, on American soil, the British 
held the American fort Niagara, a stronger fortification. 

Two miles above the Falls, on the Canadian side, on 
July 5, 1814, was fought the battle of Chippawa ; and 
on July 25, 1814, was fought the battle of Lundy's 
Lane, opposite to and a mile back from the Falls. 

The battle of Lundy's Lane is historic ; commenced 
at sundown, it was waged, with alternate reverses, in 
hand-to-hand conflict, till after midnight. In sight of 
the Falls of Niagara, with its roar mingled with the 
din of battle, in the glory of the light of a full moon, 
this battle, so fearful in its death list, continued for 
six hours. The central point was a hill where the 
British had a battery. General Scott asked Colonel 
Miller if he could capture it. " Fll try, sir," was his 
historic response. He did capture it, and for the rest 
of the battle the Americans held it against repeated 
attacks by the British. 

At last the British attack ceased and they withdrew. 
Scott had been wounded. Brown was in command. 
He ordered the Americans to withdraw from the field, 
actually leaving the cannon, that had cost so many 
lives to capture and to hold, on the hill. Other 
officers protested; but the order was given and obeyed. 
At daybreak the British returned and, unopposed, 
occupied the hill. On that account they claimed, and 
even until to-day claim, a victory; and on each recur- 
ring anniversary of the battle they celebrate on the 
battlefield a great victory, whch in the opinion of 
their American cousins thev did not win. 



On the battlefield stands a beautiful monument, 
erected recently by the Canadians in honor of their 
heroes in that battle. In the soil around it lie the 
bones of many an American hero. The consent of 
the local Provincial and Dominion authorities would 
doubtless be granted if asked ; therefore, should not 
a fitting monument be erected on that field to the 
American heroes who fell in that battle ? Thus the de- 
scendants of those heroes on both sides would be equally 
honored by their respective descendants, who to-day 
live not only as neighbors but in the bonds of affection. 

The Americans after the battle of Lundy's Lane 
(Bridgewater or Niagara, as it is often called) retired 
to Fort Erie, and were there besieged by the British. 
The Americans enlarged the fort by the addition of 
two bastions on the land side, connected together, and 
also with the respective sides of the old fort by cur- 
tains of earthwork. They also built a long abattis 
from the fort to a point on the lake shore, some hun- 
dreds of yards away. Their camp lay between this 
abattis and the river, so that Fort Erie, as added to 
by these fortifications, now faced inland. 

The British built siege batteries, and in one of their 
night assaults on the fort they captured the northwest 
bastion. When filled with their advancing troops a 
terrific explosion, with terrible loss of life among the 
British, occurred. Whether the magazine at this 
point was ignited by accident or design is unknown, 
but the explosion saved the fort from a probable cap- 
ture by the British, and ended the assault. 

Later on, General Peter B. Porter planned a sortie 
from the fort, and General Brown, who was in 

221 



command, at last consented, asking General Porter to 
lead it. The sortie was made at night by a detour 
through the woods. After a short but sharp struggle 
the British were defeated and driven away and their 
siege batteries and entrenchments destroyed. 

Fort Erie was thus saved. Lord Napier says it is 
the only instance in history of a besieging army being 
entirely defeated and routed by a single sortie. The 
fort, of no real use to the Americans, was mined and 
blown up in November, 1814. Its ruins stand to-day, 
an object of interest and veneration to both Ameri- 
cans and Canadians ; the bastions and curtains are 
perfectly traceable, and parts of the stone barracks 
remain. 

There were no further hostilities along this frontier, 
and the next year, 1815, the Treaty of Ghent put an 
end to the war. The British evacuated Fort Niagara 
in 1 8 15, and peace has since prevailed between the 
inhabitants of the banks of the Niagara. 

In 1825 the Erie Canal was completed, and at Buf- 
falo, with due ceremonies, the waters of Lake Erie 
were let into its completed waterway. 

In 1825, Mordacai M. Noah of New York City 
formed a plan to erect on Grand Island, in the Niagara 
River, an ideal community of wealth and industry for 
the Hebrew race. As the High Priest of the project, 
he even went so far as to lay the corner stone of this 
New Jerusalem, not on the site of his future city, but 
on the altar of a Christian church in the City of 
Buffalo. In this ceremony he was clad in sacerdotal 
robes, and was attended in procession by miHtary and 
civic authorities, local societies, and a great concourse 
222 



of people. The Patriarch of Jerusalem refused his 
consent to the project, money did not pour in to its 
support, and it was abandoned. 

Next year, William Morgan of Batavia threatened to 
disclose the secrets of Masonry in print. He was 
arrested on a trivial charge, taken by night in a car- 
riage through Lewiston to Fort Niagara, and impris- 
oned in the old French Magazine That fort was not 
then garrisoned, and was in charge of a caretaker. 
Several people, mostly Masons, visited Morgan, and 
all sorts of stories are told as to his death. The ac- 
cepted one is, that he was taken by night in a boat 
out on the lake and thrown overboard, his body being 
heavily weighted. Certainly, he disappeared, having 
been last seen alive at Fort Niagara. Several persons 
were arrested and tried in consequence, but no actual 
proof of Morgan's death could be produced. 

A survey, the first regular and systematic one, for 
that long projected, as yet unfulfilled, but probable 
future certainty, ship canal around Niagara Falls 
was made in 1826. 

In 1837 occurred the Patriot Rebellion in Canada. 
One event in connection therewith is of special interest, 
as it nearly embroiled the United States and Great 
Britain in war. The Patriots had a camp on Navy 
Island above the Falls. An American steamer made 
daily trips between Buffalo and that island. The 
British claimed she carried supplies and recruits to the 
Patriots. Her owners said she carried excursionists 
only. On the night of December 29, 1837, she lay 
moored at Schlosser Dock, on the American shore, 
two miles above the Falls. After midnight, six boat- 
223 



loads of British soldiers from Chippawa noiselessly 
approached, boarded her, turned off all on board, cut 
her cables, towed her nearly across the river to the 
deepest channel, set her on fire and let her drift over 
the Falls, During the attack on the boat one man, 
Amos Dufee, an American, was killed. The British 
Government assumed full responsibility for the out- 
rage. One man, a Canadian, Alexander McLeod, was 
later arrested on American soil and tried for the 
murder, but was acquitted. International feeling ran 
high, but, finally, the British Government tendered an 
apology and war was averted. 

POINTS OF HISTORIC INTEREST ALONG 
THE NIAGARA RIVER. 

ON THE AMERICAN SIDE. 

Buffalo, at the source of the river, is the eighth city 
of the Union in point of population, which in 1900 
was 355,000. It is famous as the western terminus of 
the Erie Canal, and also as the chief eastern port of 
lake navigation. It is situated twenty-two miles from 
the Falls. It was a village in 1813, when it was 
burned by the British, only one or two houses being 
left standing. 

Black Rock, formerly a village, now a part of Buf- 
falo, was famous in the War of 181 2. Inside of the 
present limits of Buffalo, along the river shore, some 
seven or eight so-called forts or batteries were located ; 
as was also a blockhouse, built about 1810, at the 
mouth of the creek. In Black Rock, Cieneral Smythe 
of Virginia collected 5,000 men, who responded to 
224 



his bombastic circular asking all to retrieve the 
Nation's honor and share in the glory, of an invasion 
of Canada. There was no invasion of Canada at that 
time, though there was much fighting, and two inva- 
sions at other periods during the war. 

Grand Island is noted as the proposed site, in 1825, 
of Major M. M. Noah's " New Jerusalem," or the in- 
dustrial center for the Jews of the new world. Beyond 
the laying of the corner stone, with due ceremonies, 
on the altar of a Christian church, in Buffalo, the 
project never made any advancement. 

Tonawanda, eleven miles above the Falls, is famous 
as a lumber market, holding the second place in 
America, or next to Chicago, in the amount of lumber 
handled. 

The village of La Salle, five miles above the Falls, 
close to the mouth of Cayuga Creek, was named after 
the famous explorer La Salle, who at this very point, in 
1679, built his vessel the "Griffon," the first craft, 
other than an Indian canoe, that ever floated on the 
upper lakes. Here, too, about 1800, the United States 
Government established a navy yard. 

Burnt Ship Bay, at the lower end of Grand Island, 
derives its name from the fact that there the defeated 
French (who hastened from the West to aid in the de- 
fense of Fort Niagara, in 1759), in their flight, burnt 
and sunk two small vessels, in order to prevent their 
falling into the hands of the victorious British. 

At Schlosser Dock, on the night of December 29, 
1837, occurred the " Burning of the Caroline." She 
was an American boat and was thought to be ren- 
dering aid to the Patriots on Navy Island. Six 
225 



boatloads of British soldiers crossed from Chippawa, 
seized her, towed her far out into the stream, set her 
on fire and let her drift over the Falls. The incident 
came very near to involving the United States and 
Great Britain in a war. 

Below Schlosser dock, and midway between it and 
the old stone chimney, was located Fort Schlosser, 
built by the English in 1761, and named after its 
builder. Just below this was located Fort de Portage, 
or, Fort Little Niagara, built by the French about 
1750. This was burned by Joncaire in 1759. He was 
in command, and demolished the fort, retreating to 
Chippawa, and from there going with the garrison to 
aid in the defense of Fort Niagara. The sites of each 
of these two forts are in the midst of the manufactur- 
ing district, and have been practically obliterated by 
the erection of mills or by the filling in of the low 
water beyond the former river banks. A strip along 
the shore at this point, covering approximately 150 
acres, having been filled in with the rock taken out in 
the excavation of the great tunnel. Just below here 
stands an isolated stone chimney, the oldest remain- 
ing bit of perfect masonry on the frontier, if not in 
all Western New York. It was attached to the bar- 
racks which the French built for Fort Little Niagara, 
and was also attached to the mess house which the 
English built in connection with Fort Schlosser. 

The road running back into the country, which does 
not now extend down to the chimney (but formerly 
did), is still called the Portage Road, and was the old 
road over which, from the middle of the last century, 
was carried all the vast freight going to and coming 

227 



from the West. Less than half a mile up this road 
from the river are still to be plainly seen the earth- 
work outlines of a blockhouse built by Captain Mon- 
tresor in 1764. This was one of eleven built by him 
that year to protect the portage between Fort Schlos- 
ser and the top of the mountain above Lewiston. 

The Niagara Falls Power Company's power house, 
the greatest power-producing plant in the world, is on 
the river bank a short distance below. This is fully 
described at the end of the scenic section of this 
book. 

Below the next mill the river runs in close to the 
road, and the spot is still known as Frenchman's 
Landing. This was the upper end of the earliest 
French portage from Lewiston to the upper river ; was 
in use from about 1700 in a small way, and from 1720 
to 1750 as a much-used highway of commerce. 
Here, in 1745, the French built a stone blockhouse 
and a storehouse, known as the first Fort Little 
Niagara. 

Next come the Niagara Rapids and Falls, and the 
Reservations, fully described heretofore. 

The small settlements at Schlosser and Manchester 
(now the City of Niagara Falls) were burnt by the 
British in 1813. 

No point of immediate historic interest occurs until 
we reach the Devil's Hole, a spot famed as the site of 
the "Massacre" of the British by the Senecas, in 
1763, one of the most noted historic incidents on the 
frontier, and more fully told in the sketch thereof. 

The Tuscarora Reservation, containing some 6,000 
acres, lies above the mountain, some three miles east. 

228 



The Tuscaroras were the first settlers along this 
frontier, in 1780 and have always been the firm 
friends of the United States. 

The bluff on top of the mountain, six miles from the 
Falls, is, geologists tell us, the old shore of Lake On- 
tario, a fact which seems to be undisputed, and for fur- 
ther information of which we refer to our geological 
section. On this bluff, in 1678, and at this point, stood 
Father Hennepin and La Salle, having climbed up the 
steep ascent from the plain below, which, from its 
three plateaus, Hennepin calls the "three mountains." 
Here, in 1764, was built the first of the eleven block- 
houses above referred to. Here, also, was located the 
upper end of the first railroad ever built in America. 
It was built of logs laid on crude piers and ran, in a 
presumably straight line, from this spot on the cliff 
directly down the edge of the bluff to the water. 
True, it was of wood, but cars ran on it. It was op- 
erated partly by hand power which the Indians sup- 
plied ; for an Indian brave, who would scorn any 
other manual labor, was content in those days to work 
at the windlass for a whole day, receiving in payment 
about one pint of whiskey and a plug of tobacco, 
luxuries unobtainable in any other way. 

Over this incline, which was built by Captain Mon- 
tresor, and which continued in active operation for 
over thirty years, was carried the entire freight going 
westward ; not only the boats, cannon and military 
stores for all the western English posts, but also the 
vast amount of freight of every description and the 
boats and goods of that large force of men who were 
known in history as fur traders. 
229 



At this point on top of the mountain, also, was 
located Fort Gray in the War of 1812. 

The village at the foot of the mountain is Lewiston, 
named for the Governor, Morgan Lewis, of New 
York, and was once a place of importance as the head 
of the navigation on Lake Ontario. It is an historic 
old place, though often referred to as a back-number 
town, and was a famous point in history. On its site 
is believed to have stood the important village On- 
guiaahra, of the Neuters. 

At the foot of the bluff above the village ended the 
incline railway already spoken of, and close to it were 
the rude wharves to which came the light-draft, old- 
fashioned and clumsy vessels of various descriptions 
that brought, mainly from Oswego, all the stores, 
both military and commercial, destined for the Far 
West. 

On the first plateau above the river overlooking 
these wharves stood the storehouses in daily use for 
all this merchandise during the last half of the eight- 
eenth century, and here was located, for their defense, 
the English fort from which the ill-fated two compa- 
nies started for the Devil's Hole. Near here, too, in 
1678, Father Hennepin landed and built a little cabin 
of palisades, and said one of the early masses cele- 
brated on the river. It could not have been the first, 
for we know that Father Dallion was on this river as 
a missionary in 1626, and to him, therefore, no doubt 
belongs the honor of being the first celebrant on this 
frontier. 

In lyiQwas built the first trading house on the 
Niagara. Erected under peculiar circumstances, it was 
231 



destined to be a point of vast historic importance. 
From 1688, when England compelled the destruction 
of Fort De Nonville, which stood where Fort Niagara 
now stands, both she, the victor, and France, the van- 
quished, desired the reerection of a fort at this loca- 
tion. Chabert Joncaire, a Frenchman by birth, a 
Seneca by adoption, and a power among the Indian 
tribes, and whom Charlesvoix describes as "speaking 
with all the good sense of a Frenchman and with all 
of the eloquence of an Iroquois," was so beloved by 
the Senecas that they wanted him to make his dwell- 
ing place amongst them, offering him the location of a 
site wherever he chose, and to locate one of their vil- 
lages around him. 

Pursuant to French instructions, he located his 
cabin on the river bank at Lewiston. It was called 
" Magazin Royal," and was ostensibly a trading house, 
but in reality it was a fort. Over it floated the flag 
bearing the lilies of France. Its attendants were all 
French soldiers, and ere a year had passed it was de- 
scribed as a heavily-built log house, forty feet long 
by thirty feet wide, two stories high, musket proof, 
with many portholes in its upper story, and surrounded 
with palisades. It was possible to locate the fort on 
this plea at this point, because Lewiston was the head 
of navigation on the river, and Fort Niagara, where 
the fort was really desired, was seven miles away, 
and a fort could not be built there with the same 
pretense. Joncaire's house stood for about six years, 
and then the French obtained the consent of the 
Senecas to build a dwelling where Fort Niagara now 
stands. 

233 



Two miles below Lewiston are the five-mile mead- 
ows, where, in December, 1813, the British crossed the 
river for their night attack on Fort Niagara. 

Fort Niagara, one of the most historic spots in 
North America, stands to-day practically defenseless, 
but bearing within its walls the relics of almost two 
and a half centuries. On this point of land, in 1669, 
La Salle built the first structure, other than an Indian 
wigwam, ever erected on this frontier. On this site, 
in 1678, La Salle again built a structure which he 
called Fort Conti. On its ruins, in 1687, De Nonville 
built the ill-fated fort that bore his name, which was 
besieged by the Senecas as soon as the army departed, 
and which was destroyed the following year, on the 
demand of the Senecas, acting under British instiga- 
tion. 

In 1725, the French erected, by consent of the 
Senecas, a stone structure on the present site of the 
Castle, whose foundations are to-day no doubt the 
oldest existing masonry west of x\lbany. This fort 
was gradually strengthened and enlarged by the 
French until, at the time of its attack by the British 
in 1759, it was as strongly fortified and protected as 
the science of that day, with such material as could be 
gathered at so far-off a point, could possibly make it. 
The history of that siege, including the three parallels 
built by the British along the lake shore, the death of 
General Prideaux, and the subsequent defeat of the 
French relieving force from the West by Sir William 
Johnson, thus acquiring for England that spot which 
for over half a century she had desired to own, and 
where for at least a score of years previously her hated 
235 



rival, France, had maintained a center of military and 
commercial activity, are matters of history that cannot 
be told in the limits of this book ; but, of the build- 
ings that stand in Fort Niagara to-day, the lower part 
of the stone walls date back to 1832, and the upper 
part of these walls to about 1861. The earthworks 
were constructed at least one hundred and fifty years 
ago, while their brick facings date only from about 
186 1. The large building, the Castle, or mess house, 
dates from 1725. Its foundation is the oldest 
masonry on the frontier. The first and second stories 
of stone date back prior to 1759, while the timbered 
roof dates from just prior to the American Revolution. 




OLD FRENCH BARRACKS, FORT NIAGARA. 



It was the center of the history of the middle part of 
North America for over one hundred years, and during 
the eighteenth century its commandant, whether 
English or French, was the most important man west 
of New York. The two stone blockhouses, the best 
extant specimens of their kind in America, were built 
in 1770 and 177 1 by the British. The old bakehouse, 
built in 1762, replaced the earlier structure. The 
237 



hot-shot furnace, first built prior to 1812, was rebuilt 
some fifty years ago. 

The long, low stone barracks were constructed by 
the French about 1750, and about that same time they 
built the square magazine which stands to the right 
of the entrance gate. The roof of this magazine is a 
huge, thick stone arch, the modern shingle roof having 
been erected over that. 

In 1826 this building acquired a national fame, for 
to it was taken by night William Morgan of anti- 
Masonic fame. Here, tradition says, he was confined 
for three days, and within its walls he was last seen 
alive ; and from it by night, according to popular 
tradition and belief, he was taken into a boat, rowed 
out into the lake, weights were attached to his body, 
and he was pushed overboard. 

Between the fort and the village of Youngstown, 
along the river shore, a line of batteries extended 
during the War of 18 12. 

" Niagara is without exception the most important 
post in America and secures a greater number of 
communications, through a more extensive country, 
than perhaps any other pass in the world." So wrote 
Major Wynne in 1770. His opinion was probably 
correct, for no one spot of land in North America has 
played a more important part in the control, growth 
and settlement of the Great West than the few acres 
embraced within its fortifications. Its cemetery is the 
oldest consecrated ground west of Albany. The 
capture of this fort by the British, in 1759, was 
the death knell of French rule in western North 
America. 

239 



ON THE CANADIAN SIDE. 

At the source of Niagara River stand the ruins, 
part of stone, part of earthwork, of Fort Erie, famed 
in the War of 1812. The first fort built near this site 
was in 1764, as a depot of suppHes for General Brad- 
street's army. The waves of the lake undermined and 
battered the foundations, so that, about 1781, a new 
location, nearer the source of the river and on the 
bluff out of the reach of the waves, was selected, and 
a second fort was built. In 1807 this was abandoned 
and part of the earthworks on their present location 
were constructed. It was enlarged by the British, in 
1 81 2, by the addition of the stone buildings which face 
the river ; and still further enlarged, in 1814, by the 
Americans, when in possession of the fort for the 
second time during that war, by the addition of two 
large bastions and connecting works in the rear and 
on the side. In 1814, the Americans, after the battle 
of Lundy's Lane, established themselves in this fort, 
and here soon afterwards they were besieged by 
General Drummond. 

A little way down the river, and extending inland, 
the British established a line of siege works and two 
batteries, and in the northwest bastion, during one 
of the British attacks on the fort, occurred one of the 
most tremendous losses of life, due partly to hand-to- 
hand conflict and partly to the explosion of the 
magazine, that has ever occurred in any war in so 
small a space. 

From Fort Erie, on September 17, 1814, the Ameri- 
cans nicide that famous sortie planned and led by 
241 



General Peter B. Porter, which, in the words of Sir Wm. 
Napier, " is the only instance in history of a besieging 
army being utterly routed in a single sortie," and 
which event ended the "War of 1812." 

No other site of historical importance occurs on the 
river bank until we reach Navy Island. Though back 
of Fort Erie, some five miles, is the scene of the Bat- 
tle of Ridgeway, fought between the Canadians and 
the Fenians in 1866. 

Navy Island, containing 340 acres, belongs to 
Canada. It is the only island of any size that fell to 
her lot in determining the boundary line between the 
United States and Canada, which line runs through 
the deepest channel of the river. Navy Island is famed 
mainly as the headquarters of the patriots during the 
War of 1837. 

On the main shore, just east of the village of Chip- 
pa \va, are the large fields where, on July 5th, 18 14, 
was fought the Battle of Chippawa. On both sides of 
the mouth of Chippawa Creek were located batteries 
during the War of 181 2. On the western bank of 
this creek, from 1794 until after 1800, stood one of the 
ordinary pattern of blockhouses, built for the protec- 
tion of the portage around the Falls on the Canada 
side, and dignified by the name of Fort Chippawa. 

One mile west of the Falls on the highest point of 
land, on July 25th, 1814, was fought the famous bat- 
tle of Lundy's Lane. Commenced late in the after- 
noon, this battle, largely a hand-to-hand conflict, was 
continued beneath the glorious light of a summer 
moon until long after midnight ; while the cease- 
less roar of Niagara thundered the dirge of the 
243 



many that fell on both sides. The central point 
of the battlefield was a battery located on the 
hill where the village cemetery and a monu- 
ment in honor of the British who fell in that 
battle now stand. This hill was captured by the 
Americans and held against repeated assaults, only, 
after the bloody victory had been gained by the Amer- 
icans, to have General Brown, their commander, order 
the army back toward Chippawa, leaving the cannon, 
for whose capture so many lives had been lost, un- 
spiked and alone on the hill, which early the next 
morning the British, without opposition, reoccupied. 
It is one of the most famous battles in history — re- 
markable that even now, nearly a hundred years after- 
wards, the Americans still claim the victory, and t.he 
Canadians, going still further, annually celebrate on 
the battlefield, with pomp and ceremony, a famous vic- 
tory which in the opinion of their American cousins 
they did not win. 

The village of Drummondville, one-half a mile west 
of the Falls, was named in honor of General Drum- 
mond of the War of 1812. 

Queenstown Heights, where was fought the battle 
of October 12, 181 2, is marked by the noble monu- 
ment to General Brock. The remains of the earth- 
works of Fort Drummond are easily traceable. 

A cenotaph at the foot of the heights marks the 
spot where General Brock fell, mortally wounded. 

Queenston, a small village below the heights, was 
so called in honor of Queen Charlotte. 

The village of Niagara, near the mouth of the 
river, called also, at various times, Newark and Butlers- 
245 



bury, is older than any settlement on the eastern 
bank. In 1792 it became the residence of the 
Lieutenant-Governor of Canada, and here was held 
the first session of the Parliament of Upper Canada. 

Fort George, whose vast earthworks are plainly 
discernible to-day, was commenced in 1796, to provide 
a habitation for the British garrison, which, soon after 
in that year, evacuated Fort Niagara under Jay's 
Treaty. 

It was enlarged prior to the war of 18 12, and 
doubled in size, in the immediate preparation of that 
war, and was, of course, the military center of the 
Canadian lower Niagara during that period. From 
here General Brock, who was in command, started to 
take part in the battle of Queenston Heights, and 
when he returned it was in his coffin, to be buried in 
the Caviller Bastion of the Fort, from whence his 
remains were subsequently removed to their present 
tomb in Brock's monument. Here, in 1813, the 
Americans, attacking from the lake side, captured the 
village and the fort, which they held until December 
of that year, when General McClure, the American 
general, on a day's notice, without provocation, set 
fire to and burned the village, thus turning the inhab- 
itants out into the cold. His destruction of the 
buildings in the fort and of the tents and other 
military stores (which he left unharmed) would have 
done far more good for the American cause and have 
left far less benefits for the advancing British than 
they found when they entered the fort. This act so 
aroused the British soldiery that it resulted in the 
retaliation and the utterly unnecessary attack and 
247 



massacre at Fort Niagara and the burning of the 
Niagara frontier. 

Fort Mississaga, a stone blockhouse, surrounded by 
high earthworks, stands to-day a perfect specimen of 
the early nineteenth century fort. It was built by the 
British in 1814, when they held control of Fort 
Niagara ; for without their occupation of that fort, 
being directly covered by the guns thereof, it could 
not have been built. Neither during the War of 1812 
nor during any subsequent period has it played any 
important part. During the war of 1812 the water 
front for a mile up from the mouth of the river was 
a line of batteries. 

Navy Hall, the residence of Governor Simcoe, the 
first Governor-General of Upper Canada, is still 
standing, a long, low, one-story wooden building 
(where, in 1792, met the first Parliament of Upper 
Canada), though not on its original site. 

About a mile back from the river are still seen the 
wooden barracks occupied during the Revolution by 
that noted band of white, but savage, warriors known 
as "Butler's Rangers." 



249 



GEOLOGIC NIAGARA. 

During the last seventy-five years geologists 
have written a great deal about Niagara, and from it 
speculatists have deduced theories as to the antiquity 
of the earth, trying to prove 

" That He who made it, and revealed its date 
To Moses, was mistaken in its age." 

In early geological days this entire section was cov- 
ered by the salt waters of the Silurian seas, which is 
proved by the shells of the Conularia Niagarensis, 
found in the shale underlying Goat Island and along 
the gorge ; this shale having once been the muddy 
bottom of these seas, and this shell being found only 
in salt water. 

At a later geological period, on top of what is now 
this shale, at the bottom of a warm ocean, still cover- 
ing all this land, grew a vast, thick and solid bed of 
coral, of which ancient life the Niagara limestone of 
to-day is a monument. 

Subsequently, these two ancient and contiguous sea 
bottoms, then solid stone, were uplifted, and by the 
configuration of the earth hereabouts the original 
Niagara River was formed. In general terms its 
course was similar to that of the present river (though 
its volume was not as great) as far north as the Whirl- 
pool, from whence it ran, in a broadening channel, to 
St. David's, westerly from its present outlet ; and prior 
250 



to the coming of the ice age it had cut this channel 
back to the Whirlpool and perhaps even farther south. 

Next came the glacial period, when this part of the 
country was enveloped with a covering of ice (work- 
ing down from the northeast) similar to that now cov- 
ering Greenland, though having a depth of hundreds 
of feet. This ice age, as approximately determined, 
lasted 50,000 years, and closed about 200,000 years ago. 

This ice sheet, as it moved forward and southward, 
broke off all the projecting points of rock, and scraped 
all the rocks themselves bare. Its presence and power 
are attested by the scratchings and markings on the 
smoothed surfaces of the top layer of rock wherever 
it is laid bare, as far south as the Ohio River, and is 
apparent on Goat Island and along the frontier. This 
ice sheet brought down in its course not only boulders 
from the far north and northeast, but its own vast ac- 
cumulations and scrapings and ebrasions, which we 
call "drift," and with this drift it filled up (and with 
its enormous weight pressed compactly) all valleys, 
gorges and indentations of the earth in its course, 
among them the old outlet or bed of the Niagara 
River from St. David's to the Whirlpool. 

The sectional view of Goat Island's rocky substrata 
shows what enormous grinding force must have been 
exerted on the top rock above the present western end 
of Goat Island (for, of course, there was no gorge west 
of the island then), so much of the limestone having 
been gouged out by the ice. In this excavated cavity 
drift was deposited by the ice. Many of the boulders 
brought here in the ice age, carried perhaps hundreds 
of miles, have been collected in this section and used 

251 




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252 



in the construction of the bandsome stone bridges 
that have been built on the Reservation, on the main 
shore, opposite Goat Island. 

On the recession of the ice sheet a second Niagara 
River came into existence. 

The weight of this vast ice sheet had canted or 
tilted the land to the northeast, so that at its reces- 
sion the waters of the present three great northern 
lakes flowed east by the Ottawa and later, as the land 
rose, by the Trent Valley. As this second Niagara 
River drained only the Lake Erie basin, and as Lake 
Erie was very much smaller than at present, it worked 
in a small channel, was of small volume, and had but 
small rock-cutting power to take up the erosive pro- 
cess of the earlier Niagara River, which had drained 
only this same Lake Erie basin. 

This is the period, again referred to, when the pres- 
ent channel to the south and west of Goat Island (the 
Canadian channel) was made. 

It should be noted that the land to the northeast is 
even yet rising, or slowly regaining its former level. 
This bears on our subject in that in time, in the upper 
lake region, the present slight slope to the southeast 
will be entirely overcome, and then the waters of the 
three great upper lakes will find their discharge to the 
westward, and the Niagara River will again drain only 
the Lake Erie basin, and, as a result, will enormously 
decrease in volume. 

If when this time comes the two Falls shall have 
eaten their way back past Goat Island they will have 
left it an elevated and isolated island, or more prob- 
ably a promontory, whose little forest will be perched 

253 



on a rocky base over 200 feet above the rapids below 
the Falls. The island itself will be narrower than at 
present on account of the action of the elements. 

If, however, when that time shall come the Ameri- 
can Fail shall not have receded far (and, judging from 
its recession during the last 200 years, it is improbable 
that it will have), its channel, by the great lessening 
of the flow of the river, will become dry, and Goat 
Island and the American channel between it and the 
main shore will become once more a part of the Amer- 
ican mainland, and there will be but one small fall in 
the Canadian channel. 

The second Niagara River gradually merged itself 
into a vast fresh-water lake, formed by the melting 
ice and heavy rainfalls, and covering all the Fake 
Erie basin, and gradually rose in level until it stood fully 
100 feet above the present rocky bed of Goat Island. 

Its northern boundary was the escarpment or ridge 
whose lowest point was just above the present village 
of Fewiston, which point is thirty-two feet above the 
present level of Fake Erie. Here the rising waters first 
broke over the dam, and here Niagara Falls were born. 

From here they cut their way back to the Whirl- 
pool, for the waters found it easier to cut a new chan- 
nel back through the soft rock from this point in the 
embankment than to scour out the old drift-filled 
channel (which was at the very bottom of the lake) 
from the Whirlpool to St. David's. 

The flow of the lake set towards the Falls and 
brought down from the Erie basin fluvial deposits in 
large amounts during the succeeding years, deposit- 
ing them all along the bottom of the lake. It is of 

254 



these fluvial deposits, consisting of sand and loam 
(excepting a comparatively small layer of drift next to 
the top rock), that the soil of Goat Island is formed, 
and that the soil covering the rocky substrata along 
the gorge is formed. 

This Goat Island soil, more than any surface in 
this section, is the geologists' paradise. While some 
lands and forests near here may not have been culti- 
vated by man, the western end of Goat Island is an 
absolutely unique piece of virgin forest. 

Most of the time it has been, in general terms, in- 
accessible to man ; and since accessible by bridges, no 
cutting of the trees, no clearing of the land nor culti- 
vation thereof, no pasturing of cattle, in fact, no dis- 
turbance of the soil, has been permitted. 

Here, then, is the orignal drift, with the subsequent 
overlying alluvial deposits and accumulations, undis- 
turbed by man. And when, as in this case, in this 
undisturbed fluvial deposit are found fresh-water 
shells, it proves that the Niagara River to-day flows 
through what was once the bottom of a vast fresh- 
water lake that covered all this section. 

As the Falls cut their way backward, so their 
height gradually diminished, and the level of this fresh- 
water lake fell until, finally, there came a time when 
the land of what is now Goat Island rose above the 
waters. That this lake existed at a comparatively 
recent geological period is proven by the fact that 
these shells now found on Goat Island are identical in 
species with those found inhabiting the Niagara River 
and Lake Ontario to-day. According to the most 
accurate calculation, the concensus of geological 
255 







256 



opinion is that 35,000 years have elapsed since the 
Falls were at Lewiston, which is seven miles away ; 
and that the fluvial deposits on the island began as 
soon as the river rose over the moraine at the foot of 
Lake Erie can scarcely be doubted. 

That in 35,000 years there is no specific difference 
between the ancient shells found in the soil of Goat 
Island and their existing representatives and progeny 
in this locality is wonderful indeed. 

Sir Charles Lyell's sectional view of the rocky 
strata, as shown along the sides of the gorge, ex- 
plains at a glance how and why the Falls have gradu- 
ally diminished in height as they have cut their way 
back from Lewiston Heights, where they were at their 
greatest altitude. At present their height, 158 feet 
at the Horseshoe Fall, is the least that it has ever 
been in all the centuries of their existence. 

During the next half mile in their recession, until 
they shall have reached the head of the rapids, their 
height will increase. 

When they shall have reached the head of the 
rapids they will be about fifty feet higher than they 
are now, or over 200 feet in height, less whatever the 
upward slope of the bed of the river below the Fall 
may diminish that total, and it cannot be by many 
feet. The average dip of the rocky strata to the south 
is twenty-five feet to the mile, and the average slope 
of the river channel in the opposite direction is fifteen 
feet to the mile. 

When the Falls shall have receded yet another half 
mile, or a total distance of one mile from their present 
location, by the wearing away of the strata, which 
257 



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258 



dips rapidly downward, and by the continued, but 
gradual, elevation of the bed of the river, and there- 
fore of the surface of the water below them, they will 
have decreased in height to about loo feet. And 
when they shall have receded still another mile, their 
height will be only about sixty feet. Still referring 
to Sir Charles Lyell's sectional views of the strata, I 
give his explanation of how, between Lewiston Heights 
and the Whirlpool, there were three falls. 

The upper limestone and shale (8 and 7) having 
first been worn away, a second fall would in time be 
caused over the edge of the strata 6, 5, 4 and 3, and 
finally a third cascade sprang into existence over the 
edge of strata 2 and i. Three falls, one above the 
other, similar in their geological and geographical 
position to those seen to-day on the Genesee River at 
Rochester, N. Y., would thus be formed. 

The recession of the upper fall must have been 
gradually retarded, as it cut its way back, by the 
thickening of strata No. 8. Thus the second fall, 
which would not suffer the same retardation, might 
overtake it, and the two united would then be retarded 
by the large quantity of rock to be removed, until the 
lowest fall would come up to them, and then the 
whole would be united into one. 

When they were about a mile south of Queenston 
Heights, the total altitude of the three falls must have 
been about 400 feet ; hence, in their recession of seven 
miles, the Falls have lost some 240 feet in height, an 
average of thirty-five feet to the mile. 

As geologists differ by thousands of years as to how 
long it took the Falls to cut their way from Lewiston 

259 




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260 



ridge to their present location it would be impossible 
to say when in the history of this section the waters 
had so far drained off that the muddy deposits over- 
lying the rocky bed of what is now Goat Island first 
appeared above the slowly-receding waters of the 
lake, unless we adopt some length of time for this work 
as a basis. 

But it is not so difficult, by noting the elevation of 
the land, the trend of the rocks and the depth of the 
overlying "drift," to locate approximately where the 
Falls were when this occurred. At that time, judging 
from the present levels of the land, the Falls must 
have been at a point nearly a mile north of the 
present location of the Horseshoe Fall. And if 
we accept, as above, one foot a year as a fair 
average estimate of the recession of Niagara from 
Lewiston Heights in the more recent geological time, 
it must have been between four and five thousand 
years ago that the soil of Goat Island, then a part 
of the mainland, first appeared ; and probably it is 
nearly as long since it became an island. 

In speaking of the recession of Niagara, I refer to 
the recession of the Horseshoe Fall, for it recedes 
several hundred times as fast as the American Fall; for 
in the time that the Horseshoe Fall has receded from 
Prospect Point, at the lower or northern edge of the 
American Fall, across the width of the American Fall 
and across the width of Goat Island to its present posi- 
tion, the American Fall has receded but a very few feet. 
Hence, on these deductions, Goat Island has existed 
as an island from about the time of the Flood, or from 
about 2,300 B. C. 

261 




262 



This proves the statement that ''in a scientific 
sense the island is of trifling antiquity, in fact, it would 
be difficult to point out in the western world any 
considerable tract of land more recent in its origin." 

As the Canadian Fall is lower in level than the 
American Fall, and as the main body of water and 
deepest channel appertain to this Canadian Fall, it is 
certain that the channel of the second Niagara River, 
which, of course, after the lake was drained off, was at 
the lowest level of this old lake bed, was practically 
identical with the Canadian channel of the river just 
above the Falls to-day ; that is, to the south and west 
of Goat Island. 

Then Goat Island was a part of the American 
mainland, and the rocky bed of the river between the 
island and the shore, where to-day are the American 
Rapids, was also part of the mainland and covered 
with soil like that on Goat Island. 

Then came a time, perhaps some hundreds of 
years afterwards, when, in the steady rerising of the 
land at the northeast towards the elevation that it had 
before it was depressed by the ice, the outlet of the 
three upper lakes to the east was cut off ; and the 
waters, seeking a new outlet, found it by what is now 
the St. Clair River into Lake Erie. 

By this means the volume of the Niagara River was 
suddenly and enormously increased. This perma- 
nently raised the level of the river, and part of this 
increased volume of water poured over the lowest 
point of the mainland near where Goat Island is 
to-day, this point being in the present channel of the 
American Rapids and along the American shore up- 
263 



stream; and this rush of waters cut and swept away 
the soil down to the rock, leaving and thus forming- 
Goat Island. 

Probably at the same time and in the same manner 
were cut off and formed the small islands that now lie 
on both sides of Goat Island, though they were at the 
first larger and, being joined together, fewer in 
number than at present. 

Certainly, up to the time of the cutting of the 
channel of the American Fall, the river shore of 
what is now Goat Island extended very much farther 
upstream, and probably after the island itself was 
formed its upper end extended much farther eastward ; 
for at its eastern end, now called "the parting of the 
waters," a sandy bar extends some hundreds of yards 
upstream. On this bar and south of it the depth of 
water is to-day less than three feet, and in the winter 
its whole length is covered with ice that lodges there. 
This entire bar was no doubt at one time covered with 
soil and was a part of Goat Island, the land being 
gradually washed away by the water, aided in its 
work by frost and ice. 

One author says, " One of the early chronicles states 
that the island contained 250 acres of land," but I 
have been unable to find that chronicle. 

Niagara has been called the "sun clock of the 
ages," and the stratification of the rocks through 
which it has cut its way may be studied at many 
points, especially at the "Whirlpool Rapids," above 
the Whirlpool, where both shores of the gorge are 
little covered with foliage, and again on the Goat 
Island cliff. 

264 



BOTANIC NIAGARA. 

"The groves were God's first temples." 

It is a difficult task to treat of the botany of any 
region within the space allotted to it in a guide of 
this nature ; and especially difficult to treat of it in a 
manner suitable to such a work, for this must be done 
in a superficial way and without employing many 
scientific terms. 

For the study of its botany, the Niagara frontier 
may properly be divided into four sections. The first, 
from Lake Erie to the rapids above the Falls ; the sec- 
ond, the mile of territory beginning at the head of 
these rapids and extending to the bridge below the 
Falls ; the third, from this bridge down the gorge to 
Queenston Heights ; and the fourth, from these 
heights to Lake Ontario. 

The botanic nature of the first section is largely 
that which one would expect to find along a river's 
bank in this latitude, and under its existing condi- 
tions in reference to the Great Lakes. The second 
embraces a section almost unique in northern lati- 
tudes, by reason of the ever present moisture of the 
spray. The third section contains the remarkable 
gorge. While the fourth section differs from the first 
mainly in that it lies much lower, and, being more 
protected, is some weeks earlier in production. 

No doubt all along the river many of the seeds 
which started the first foliage and forest, as well as 
265 



many succeeding species, were planted by the river 
(or by the vast lake that preceded it) at its inception 
and in subsequent decreasing levels, and this is speci- 
ally true of Goat Island. 

The botanist will, no doubt, find the most prolific 
field for study in section two, the one immediately adja- 
cent to the Falls themselves ; and, next to that, in 
section three, where the base of the cliff and the slope 
below it, on both sides of the river, present unusual 
and remarkable features. 

The late David F. Day of Buffalo, some few years 
ago, at the request of the Commissioners of the New 
York State Reservation at Niagara, prepared a list of 
the flora to be found on and near the Reservation. 

Goat Island, in that report, naturally receives special 
mention. Of it he says : 

*' A calcareous soil enriched with an abundance of 
organic matter like that of Goat Island would neces- 
sarily be one of great fertility. For the growth and 
sustentation of a forest and of such plants as prefer 
the woods to the openings it would far excel the deep 
and exhaustless alluvians of the prairie States. 

'' It would be difficult to find within another terri- 
tory so restricted in its limits so great a diversity of 
trees and shrubs and still more difficult to find in so 
small an area such examples of arboreal symmetry 
and perfection as the island has to exhibit. 

" The island received its flora from the mainland ; 
in fact, the botanist is unable to point out a single 
instance of tree, shrub or herb now growing upon the 
island not also to be found upon the mainland. But 
the distinguishing characteristic of its flora is not the 
266 



possession of any plant elsewhere unknown, but the 
abundance of individuals and species which the island 
displays. There are to be found in Western New 
York about 170 species of trees and shrubs. Goat 
Island and the immediate vicinity of the river near 
the Falls can show of these no less than 140. There 
are represented on the island four maples, three species 
of thorn, two species of ash, and six species, distrib- 
uted in five genera, of the cone-bearing family. The 
one species of basswood belonging to the vicinity is 
also there." 

His catalogue of plants gives 909 species of plants 
to be found on the Reservation, of which 758 are 
native and 151 are foreign. These 909 species em- 
brace 410 genera. 

Again he says : 

" The flora of Goat Island presents few plants which 
may be called uncommon in Western New York. 

" For the rarer plants, other localities must be 
visited, but Goat Island is very rich in the number of 
its species. 

" Its vernal beauty is attributable, not merely to its 
variety of plants, conspicuous in flower, but also to 
the extraordinary abundance in which they are 
produced. Yet it seems likely that there was a time, 
probably not long ago, when other species of plants 
of great beauty were common upon the island, but 
which are not now to be found there. It is hardly 
possible that several orchidaceous plants and our 
three native lilies did not once embellish its woods 
and grassy places. Within a little while the harebell 
has gone and the grass of Parnassus is fast going. 

267 



This is undoubtedly due to careless flower gatherers, 
who have plucked and pulled without stint or reason. 
The same fate awaits others that do so much to 
beautify the island, unless the wholesale spoliation is 
soon arrested." 

He then suggests that pains be taken to reestablish 
on the island the attractive plants which it has lost, 
stating that the success of the effort would be entirely 
certain and thereby the pleasure of a visit to the 
island would be greatly enhanced to many visitors. 
And he rightly adds : " It would surely be a step, and 
not an unimportant one, in restoring the island to the 
state in which nature left it." 

Sir Joseph Hooker, the noted English botanist, has 
said that he found on Goat Island a greater variety of 
vegetation within a given space than he had found 
elsewhere in Europe or east of the Sierras in America ; 
and Dr. Asa Gray, the greatest of American botanists, 
confirms that statement. 

Some of the rarest plants of Western New York and 
Ontario grow in the neighborhood of the Niagara 
River, but not within the boundaries of either the 
New York State Reservation or the Queen Victoria 
Park. 

In section four, although Queenston Heights, which 
are its commencement, present a northerly exposure, 
among the plants growing upon the talus and on 
the plain below, are a number which belong rather to 
the south and southwest, and are much more abun- 
dant in Ohio than in Western New York. This may be 
explained by the fact that the annual temperature 
here and northward to Lake Ontario is higher than 

268 



that prevailing at the Falls and immediately south of 
them. 

In the woods, on the high bank just east of the 
Whirlpool, around DeVeaux College, are to be found 
several species not found at the Falls. Queenston 
Heights furnish some species scarcely seen elsewhere 
in this vicinity. 

Spring seems to visit Foster's Flats, lying below the 
high western bank of the gorge, some weeks earlier 
than it does the table-land above, and these flats pro- 
duce several rare plants. 

The Devil's Hole was once a paradise of ferns, and 
the plateau of rock which overlooks the ravine at this 
point produces some specimens uncommon elsewhere 
in this region. Between the mountain and the village 
of Lewiston are to be found plants that are rare in 
Western New York. 

The low land near Clifton, on the Canada Shore, and 
the woods near the Whirlpool on the same side of the 
river, produce plants uncommon, if not unique, in this 
locality. 

Frederick Law Olmstead wrote : '* I have followed 
the Appalachian Chain almost from end to end, and 
traveled on horseback, ' in search of the picturesque,' 
over 4,000 miles of the most promising parts of the 
continent without finding elsewhere the same quality 
of forest beauty which was once abundant about the 
Falls, and which is still to be observed on those parts 
of Goat Island where the original growth of trees and 
shrubs has not been disturbed, and where from caving 
banks trees are not now exposed to excessive dryness 
at the root. 

269 



" All these distinctive qualities, the great variety of 
the indigenous perennials and annuals, the rare beauty 
of the old woods, and the exceeding loveliness of the 
rock foliage I believe to be a direct effect of the Falls, 
and as much a part of its majesty as the mist cloud and 
the rainbow. They are all, as it appears to me, to be 
explained by the circumstance that at two periods of 
the year, when the Northern American forest else- 
where is liable to suffer actual constitutional depres- 
sion, that of Niagara is assured against ills, and thus 
retains youthful luxuriance to an unusual age. 

*' First, the masses of ice which every winter are 
piled to a great height below the Falls and the great 
rushing body of ice-cold water coming from the north- 
ern lakes in the spring, prevent at Niagara the hard- 
ship under which trees elsewhere often suffer through 
sudden checks to premature growth. And, second, 
when droughts elsewhere occur, as they do every few 
years, of such severity that trees in full foliage droop 
and dwindle, and even sometimes cast their leaves, the 
atmosphere at Niagara is more or less moistened by 
the constantly evaporating spray of the Falls, and in 
certain situations bathed by drifting clouds of spray." 

For the enthusiastic botanist, the Niagara Frontier 
is a glorious playground, where study and recreation 
go hand in hand. 



270 



HYDRAULIC AND ELECTRIC 
NIAGARA. 

We must treat of these two subjects practically as 
one, for while Niagara has been recognized for years 
as a power-producing locality, and while the water 
power of the rapids had been utilized to a small 
extent as early as 1750, by the French in the erection 
of mills on the American shore ; and while DeWitt 
Clinton, in 1810, makes reference to the possibilities 
of power here, it was not until 1853 that the first 
development thereof on a large scale was undertaken, 
and not until 1890 that operations on the great tun- 
nel, which was to convert water power into electricity 
on the grandest scale on earth, were actually com- 
menced. The State of Massachusetts, about 1788, 
when practically all of Western New York was 
sold to Phelps and Gorham, had reserved what is 
known as the mile strip ; that is, a strip of land 
one mile in width along the river bank from Lake 
Erie to Lake Ontario. This mile strip was offered for 
sale by the State of New York, then its owner, about 
1806, and in the surveyor-general's field notes regard- 
ing the lots immediately adjacent to the Great Fall, 
he noted their value for water power, and the pur- 
chasers of these lots bore this especially in mind in 
selecting and securing this very land ; and though, in 
1825, the owners of these lots in a printed circular 
called attention to and invited the enlistment of 
271 



capital for the development of the power, it was not 
until sixty years later that a number of men, among 
them the descendants of the very men who issued the 
circular, developed a plan, formulated by Thomas 
Evershed of Rochester, for the production of water 
power here on a vast scale, which has since been 
carried to such a wonderfully successful conclusion 
by the capitalists who formed the Niagara Falls Power 
Company. 

In 1853 the first attempt on a large scale to develop 
Niagara power was formed by a company of Boston 
capitalists ; the company later, and soon after, was 
reorganized, the necessary land was acquired, and in 
spite of many difficulties the first hydraulic canal 
(which is still in operation) was constructed. This 
corporation, The Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and 
Manufacturing Company, has largely increased the 
development of its power, and has been the means of 
building up not only its own enterprises, but those 
of other capitalists that now derive the power from 
this company, which to-day is producing in the 
neighborhood of 15,000 horse power, and has great 
possibilities for the enormous increase of even this 
production. 

This canal is a surface canal, starting about three- 
quarters of a mile above the American Fall, and 
conducting the water on the surface to a point a 
quarter of a mile below the American Fall, where the 
overflow is into the gorge, which at this point is some 
200 feet lower in level. Not only is this power thus used 
by a number of manufacturers located along the basin 
at the outlet of the canal and situated on the edge of 

272 



the bluff, but, by a secondary use of the water after it 
has passed out from the wheels at the bottom of the 
first head, is made to do twofold duty by furnishing 
the power to a second wheel. In some cases these 
secondary wheels are located in excavations in the 
face of the gorge itself, and in others are utilized 
under this high head on wheels situated under build- 
ings erected close to the water's edge below. 

In 1885 was formed the project of the so-called 
tunnel. At first it was designed to have the outlet 
of the tunnel located under the base of Goat Island, 
and the tunnel itself was to extend upstream under 
the said island and under the bed of the river for over 
a mile. The factories which were to be located on 
the present site of the upper manufacturing district 
were to be connected with this main tunnel by lateral 
tunnels. The initial steps for the establishment of 
the State Reservation at Niagara, taken in 1879, 
precluded the possibility of adopting this route and 
compelled its projectors to change the line of the 
tunnel to its present location, which is directly under 
the City of Niagara Falls. 

As first projected, there were to be twelve surface 
canals extending from the river a long distance inland 
and beyond the line of the tunnel. Beneath these 
surface canals were to be twenty-four lateral tunnels, 
twelve sloping respectively from either side toward 
the main tunnel. Further investigation proved this 
to be too expensive a method and requiring too much 
rock cutting, and the project was so modified that 
instead of having twelve canals capable of carrying 
enough water (for this vast tunnel is simply a tail race 
275 



that carries away the water after it has developed the 
power on the wheels) to develop 120,000 horse power 
through twenty-four lateral tunnels each delivering the 
waste water from 5,000 horse power into the main 
tunnel, it was suggested that three V-shaped canals 
be excavated, each capable of furnishing water for 
40,000 horse power, and which were to be connected 
with the tunnel by three penstocks. 

The capitalists who were engaged in developing 
this vast enterprise still felt that, for the protection of 
the stockholders, it was necessary that they should 
secure the best and latest ideas in all the world, so 
that they might not in the future be confronted with 
the fact that at the time they were expending all these 
millions there existed, somewhere, engineering talent 
capable of benefiting the scheme, and which they had 
not secured. So they formed an International Com- 
mission, composed of one representative each from 
England, France, Switzerland, Germany and the 
United States, with headquarters in London, to whom 
was to be submitted the plans of all engineers who 
cared to compete not only in the hydraulic develop- 
ment, but in the production of the wheels, penstocks 
and various designs in connection with the great 
project ; and during a period of six months the 
Power Company agreed to pay the expenses of a 
representative of any firm to Niagara and return from 
any part of the world, only stipulating that some 
design must be submitted. 

The result of this commission, of which Sir Wil- 
liam Thompson, better known as Lord Kelvin, was 
president, was a decision, in the interest of economy, 
274 



1 



to abandon the three surface canals of 40,000 horse 
power, and to substitute one canal capable of fur- 
nishing water to the full capacity of the tunnel, 
namely, 120,000 horse power. This idea was adopted 
and the canal has been so constructed. 

The tunnel itself is 7,200 feet long, and is a brick- 
lined passage twenty-nine feet in height, eighteen 
feet in breadth, tgg shaped, and in its construction 
twenty million bricks were used for the lining. 

The power house of this company is a vast granite 
building, 425 feet long by 60 feet wide, wherein are 
now produced 50,000 horse power by ten dynamos of 
5,000 horse power each. These dynamos are fitted to 
the top of the shafts, which extend down into the pit 
130 feet, and there connect directly with the wheels, 
which by a Swiss invention are not at the bottom of 
the penstock direct, but alongside of them ; for these 
penstocks, each carrying a column of water six feet 
in diameter and 140 feet high, and capable of produc- 
ing a continuous 5,000 horse power, turn upwards at 
their lower end, so that the weight of this column of 
water by its uplifting force reduces the weight of, and, 
therefore, the friction of, the wheel. 

On the other side of the canal is now in process 
of construction a second pit and the erection of a sec- 
ond power house capable of producing, by a like 
means, 50,000 horse power more. As the tunnel and 
the canal were built in their entirety, it is only neces- 
sary to connect this new pit with the main tunnel by 
a short additional piece of tunnel. 

When this tunnel was projected electricity was in 
its infancy, and it is worthy of note that the first pros- 
275 



pectus issued by the incorporators of this company 
referred to the possibiHties of electrical uses of this 
power in about three lines. Hydraulic or water power 
was its avowed object. As the years went by, and as 
electrical science increased and developed, the water- 
power feature of the Tunnel Company has been almost 
entirely eliminated, so far as furnishing hydraulic 
power to manufacturers is concerned ; and in its stead 
to-day almost the entire capacity of the tunnel now 
in use, and the entire capacity of the present and also 
of the projected power house, is devoted to the trans- 
formation of the water power into electrical units. 

From this power house are delivered to all the 
factories which have been brought to its domain, elec- 
trical power for the various processes. From it is 
lighted the City of Niagara Falls and a large portion 
of the City of Buffalo. Here is generated the power 
that runs all the trolley lines in the City of Buffalo, the 
line twenty-two miles long between Buffalo and Niagara 
Falls, and the line of the same length between Buffalo 
and the City of Lockport ; and many of the manufac- 
tories in various branches of commerce in Buffalo have 
adopted this new Niagara power in place of the steam 
power of former years. Power is also developed and 
delivered for the Gorge Railroad, and for the trolley 
line to Fort Niagara, from the Hydraulic Canal Com- 
pany's plant. It is this wonderful transmission of a 
small portion of the enormous water power of Niagara 
turned into electricity that is now developing this sec- 
tion in such a wonderful way. What the limits in dis- 
tance of the transmission of electricity at a commercial 
profit will be no one now dares to say, and perhaps 
276 



the guide book of twenty years hence may ridicule 
the fact that at the opening of the twentieth century, 
Niagara, the power house of North America, was 
Hmited in the distance it was sending its power by a 
score of miles ; for what has been done on a small 
scale will no doubt be done on a very much larger 
one, and it is but five years ago, by means of the tele- 
phone wire, the roar of Niagara, caught in a huge re- 
ceiver placed at the base of the Cave of the Winds 
Fall, was nightly for a period of thirty days transmit- 
ted to and heard by thousands of people in the City 
of New York. It is a probability that the advance in 
electrical science will enable cities, even as far from 
Niagara as New York, in the course of a comparatively 
few years, to receive their manufacturing and lighting 
power from the energy of the Great Cataract. 



277 



NIAGARA IN LITERATURE. 

"All the descriptions you may read of Niagara can 
only produce in your mind the faint glimmer of the 
glowworm compared with the overpowering beauty 
and glory of the meridian sun," truthfully wrote J. J. 
Audubon. 

EARLIEST REFERENCES. 

The first reference to Niagara in literature (that of 
France) antedated its first portrayal in art (also 
French) by over four score and ten years. In 1603, 
Samuel de Champlain, the first Governor-General of 
New France, and the most picturesque figure in all 
Canadian history, in his '' Des Sauvages " says : " At 
the end of this lake (meaning Ontario) they pass a 
fall, somewhat high and with but little water flowing 
over." Champlain, who never saw Niagara, heard 
this from the Indians on the coast. 

In his 1613 map, Champlain locates the Falls quite 
accurately, and in his 1632 map they are located and 
referred to in a note as a " waterfall, very high, where 
many kinds of fish are stunned in the descent." 

In 1648, Father Rageneau, in the "Jesuit Rela- 
tions," speaks of " Lake Erie, which discharges itself 
into a third lake, called Ontario, over a cataract of 
fearful height." 

In 1669, Father Gallinee, in his journal, tells of 
being at the mouth of the Niagara River, which " has 

278 



i 



from ten to twelve leagues above its embrochure into 
Lake Ontario one of the finest falls of water in the 
world, for all the Indians of whom I have enquired 
about it say that the river falls at that place from a rock 
higher than the tallest pines, that is, about 300 feet. 
In fact, we heard it from where we were." 

There is but one way to tell of Niagara in literature, 
both prose and poetry, and that is to quote from the 
productions of the master minds who have tried to 
describe it or who have recorded their impressions of it, 
and in every case these quotations must be brief. 

DESCRIPTIVE PROSE. 

Father Hennepin, who gave the first real descrip- 
tion of Niagara, was also the first to use that spelling of 
the name. He saw them in 1678, and in his " Louis- 
iana," 1683, describes them, which description he am- 
plified in his " New Discovery," 1697, in these words : 
'' Betwixt the lakes Ontario and Erie there is a vast and 
prodigious cadence of water which falls down after a 
surprising and astonishing manner, insomuch that the 
universe does not afford its parallel," which is as true 
to-day as it was over two centuries ago. He, however, 
gave the height of the Falls as 600 feet, and said he 
discovered "a spot of ground (under Table Rock) 
which lay under the fall of water, which is to the east 
(the third fall which flowed over Table Rock), big 
enough for foui coaches to drive abreast without being 
wet." 

I have already in the scenic section quoted expres- 
sions by J. B. Orton, Anthony TroUope, Charles Dudley 
279 



Warner, the Duke of Argyle, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, 
David Gray, George William Curtis, Charles Mackay, 
Rev. F. A. P. Greenwood, William Russell, L. W. 
Mansfield, and Captain Basil Hall — a noble com- 
pany in themselves. Let me add the prose expres- 
sions of some others. 

An unnamed author wrote : " One might almost 
fancy that Niagara was designedly placed by the 
Creator in the temperate zone, that it might not 
always wear the same livery of loveliness, but that 
the peculiar excellencies of each of the three 
great regions of the earth might, in turn, enrich, 
beautify and adorn this favorite and glorious work of 
His power. That in summer it might have the warmth 
and luxuriance of the tropics ; in autumn, the vivid 
hues and varying dyes of the middle regions ; and in 
winter, the icy splendor and starry lustre of the frozen 
zone. All that is rich, all that is striking, all that is 
gorgeous in nature, thus centers here in one holy 
spot, beautifying sublimity, adorning immensity, and 
making the awful attractive. Men come from all 
ends of the earth to see Niagara, and well they 
may." 

Where the waters pitch all is agitation and foam ! 
Beyond they spread themselves like a rippling sea of 
liquid alabaster. The last feature is perfectly unique, 
and you would think nothing could add to its loveli- 
ness ; but there lies on it, as if made for each other, 
"heaven's own bow of promise." The world knows 
nothing like these Falls. It is better to see Niagara 
than a thousand ordinary sights. They may revive 
sleeping emotions, but this creates new emotion, 
38o 



and raises the mind a step higher in its conception 
of the power and eternity of God. — Rev. A?idrew 
Reed. 

Niagara is not simply the crowning glory of New 
York State, but it is the highest distinction of the 
nation and of the continent of America. No other 
like gift of Nature equally holds the interest of the 
world, or operates as an inducement for men to cross 
the sea. — Coftimissioners' Report on the Fresefi'ation of 
the Scene?y of Niagara, 1880. 

It is the combined appeal to every sense and every 
faculty, exalting the soul into a higher sphere of con- 
templation which distinguishes this spot above all 
others in this world. Niagara is an awful symbol of 
Infinite power — a vision of Infinite beauty — a shrine, 
a temple erected by the hand of the Almighty for all 
the children of men. — James C. Carter; Oration at 
Free Niagara, July 75, 188^. 

The days when one's eyes rest on Niagara are epochs 
in the life of any man. He gazes on a scene of sub- 
limity and splendor far greater than the unaided fancy 
of poet or. painter ever pictured. He receives im- 
pressions which time cannot diminish and death alone 
efface. — Major Thomas Hamilton. 

What a wonderful thing water can become ! One 
feels, in looking at Niagara, as if one had never seen 
that element before. Perhaps the most peculiar and 
transcendent attitude of this matchless cataract is its 
almost endless variety. — Lady Stuart Worthy. 

The beauty of Niagara seems to me more impres- 
sive than its grandeur. One's imagination may heap 
up almost any degree of grandeur, but the subtle col- 
281 



oring of this scene — the Horseshoe Fall — refining 
upon the softness of driven snow, and dimming all the 
gems of the mind is wholly inconceivable. — Harriet 
Martineaii. 

Beauty is not absent from the Horseshoe Fall, but 
majesty is its chief attribute. The plunge of the 
water is not wild, but deliberate, vast and fascinating. 
— Professor Tyndall. 

There is one thing about Niagara that impresses. 
It can have no rival. Its deep, thundering voice of 
power will be heard in its solemn intensity. The 
ceaseless sermon of its majesty — the omnipotence of 
God — will be preached while the waters flow. — L. 
W. Mansfield. 

The great Fall faces you, enshrined in the surging 
incense of its own resounding mists. Already you 
see the world-famous green, baffling painter, baffling 
poets, clear and lucid on the lip of the precipice, the 
more so, of course, for the clouds of silver and snow 
into which it drops. A green more gorgeously cool and 
pure it is impossible to conceive. You can fancy it is 
the parent green ; the head spring of color to all the 
verdant water caves, and all the clear haunts and 
bowers of naiads and mermen in all the streams of 
earth. The river drifts along, with measured pride, 
deep and lucid, yet of immense body — the most 
stately of torrents. Its movement, its sweep, its pro- 
gression are as admirable as its color, but as little as 
its color to be made a matter of words. These things 
are but part of a spectacle in which nothing is imper- 
fect. You stand steeped in long looks at the most 
beautiful object in the world. — Henry James. 
282 



While within the sound of its waters, I will not say 
that you become part and parcel of the cataract, but 
you will find it difficult to think, speak or dream of 
anything else. I am Niagara-mad. — C. J. Latrobc. 

We were less struck with the grandeur of this 
cataract than with its sublime softness and gentleness. 
We felt ourselves attracted by the surpassing loveli- 
ness of Niagara. The gulf below was more imposing 
than we had expected to see it, but it was Italian in 
hue and softness, amid its wildness and grandeur. 
Not a drop of the water that fell down the precipice 
inspired terror ; for everything appeared to us to be 
filled with attraction and love. — James Fenimore Cooper. 

As I stood on the brink of the Fall, I could not 
help wishing that I could have been so made that 
I might have joined it in its flow, with it to have 
rushed harmlessly down the precipice, to have rolled 
uninjured into the deep unfathomable gulf below, and 
to have risen again with the spray to the skies. For 
about an hour I continued to watch the rolling water, 
and then I felt a slight dizziness and a creeping sen- 
sation come over me, the sensation arising from strong 
excitement, and the same probably which occasions 
the bird to fall into the jaws of the snake. This is 
the feeling which if too long indulged in becomes 
irresistible, and occasions a craving desire to leap into 
the flood of rushing waters. — Captain Marryat. 

The first emotion on viewing Niagara is that of 
familiarity. Ever after its strangeness increases. 
The surprise is none the less a surprise because it is 
kept until the last, and the marvel, making itself felt 
in every nerve, all the more fully possesses you. It is 
283 



as if Niagara reserved her magnificence and preferred 
to win your heart with its beauty. — /F. D. Howelh. 

One feels thoroughly alone when overhanging that 
thundering mass of waters with the silent moon treading 
her tranquil way. I thought of soul, and this mighty 
fall seemed as a drop to the cataract of mind which 
had been rushing from the bosom of the Eternal from 
age to age ; now covered with mists of sorrow, now 
glittering in the sunlight of joy, now softened by the 
moonlight of tender memories, now falling into the 
abysses of death, but all destined — I trust in God — 
to flow in many a happy river around His throne. — 
Caroline Gilman. 

It was not until I came on Table Rock and looked 
— Great Heaven! — what a fall of bright green 
water! — that the vastness of the scene came upon 
me in its full majesty and might. Then when I felt 
how near to my Creator I was standing, the first 
effect, and the enduring one — instant and lasting — 
was peace. Peace of mind, calm tranquility, calm 
recollections of the dead, great thoughts of eternal 
rest and happiness — nothing of gloom or terror. 
Niagara was at once stamped upon my heart, an 
image of beauty to remain there, changeless and 
indelible, until its pulses ceased to beat forever. I 
think in every quiet season now, still do those waters 
roll and leap and roar and tumble all day long ; still 
are the rainbows spanning them a hundred feet below. 
Still, when the sun is on them do they shine and glow 
like molten gold. Still, when the day is gloomy, do 
they fall like snow or seem to crumble away like the 
front of a great chalk cliff, or roll down the rocks like 
284 



dense white smoke. But always does the mighty 
stream appear to die as it comes down, and always 
from its unfathomable grave arises that tremendous 
ghost of spray and mist which is never laid ; which 
has haunted this place with the same dread solemnity 
since Darkness brooded on the deep, and that first 
flood before the deluge — Light — came rushing on 
Creation at the word of God. — Charles Dickens. 

And lastly, in antithesis, let me quote the confession 
of John Gait, who at the commencement of his auto- 
biography tells how, as a child, he was entranced at 
seeing a picture of Niagara. Years afterwards he went 
there, presumably and solely on purpose to see the 
Falls, and then — but let him tell in his own words 
what sort of a man he was : 

It was sunset when we reached Manchester, and as the fire 
in the hotel was very inviting, my disposition did not incline, 
at the time, to go abroad. So I sent my servant to look at 
the Falls with orders to come back and tell me what they 
were like, and if it were worth while to go and look at them. 
No doubt the lad's downright character had some influence 
in making me give this ludicrous order, but his answer when 
he returned was beyond expectation : " It is a very cold 
night," said he, " and there is nothing to be seen but a great 
tumbling of waters," advising me at the same time not to go 
abroad that night. 

Thus it came to pass that, although within a hundred 
yards of the Falls of Niagara, I was induced not to visit 
them, nor did I during my first visit to America.— -y^jZ/w Gait, 
Autobiography, 

That the man could be such a fool seems strange, 
but that he should deliberately record his own stupid- 
ity is almost incomprehensible. In including him in 
this particular section, he is placed in noble company; 

285 



but, in order to emphasize the fact that he is admitted 
only by contrast, the quotation from his work is set in 
smaller type. Were it set in a type of a size suitable 
to express the inevitable contrast, it would be unread- 
able, in fact, it would be invisible. 

POETRY. 

" What poets have shed 
From countless quills 
Niagaras of ink." 

The first reference to Niagara in poetry is exactly 
coincident with its first reference in literature. 

Champlain, in his " Des Sauvages " (Paris, 1603), 
embodies a sonnet by " Le Sieur de la Franchise." 
As it is written to Champlain, the author no doubt 
derived his knowledge of the Falls directly from him. 
La Franchise refers to " les saults Mocosans." 
Mocosa being the ancient name of Virginia, all com- 
mentators seem to agree that this reference can be 
only to Niagara. 

Let me begin with the statement that no poet of 
the first rank, of any nation, has ever written a great 
poem on Niagara. 

Tom Moore visited it and touched on it in some of 
his minor poems. It is currently believed that the 
following well-known lines of his were written on the 
banks of the lower Niagara, while on a visit to 
Newark : 

I knew, by the smoke that so gracefully curl'd 
Above the green elms, that a cottage was near ; 

And I said, " If there's peace to be found in the world, 
A heart that was humble might hope for it here." 
286 



i 



It was noon, and on flowers that languished around 
In silence reposed the voluptuous bee ; 

Every leaf was at rest, and I heard not a sound 
But the woodpecker tapping the hollow beech tree. 

And " Here, in this lone little wood," I exclaim'd, 
" With a maid that was lovely to soul and to eye, 

Who would blush when I praised her, and weep if I 
blamed. 
How blessed I could live, and how calm I could die ! 

" By the shade of yon sumach, whose red berry dips 
In the gush of the fountain, how sweet to recline. 

And to know that I sigh'd upon innocent lips, 

Which had never been sigh'd on by any but mine !" 

Although these Hnes were written long before 
Niagara became a Mecca for brides and grooms, the 
vicinity of the cataract was even then conducive to 
thoughts of love. 

Byron's famous description of Velino may properly 
be applied to Niagara : 

"A matchless Cataract 
Horribly beautiful ! but on the verge, 
From side to side, beneath the glittering morn 
An Iris sits, amidst the infernal surge 
Like hope upon a deathbed, and unworn 
Its steady dyes, while all around is torn 
By the distracted waters, bears serene 
Its brilliant hues, with all their beams unshorn, 
Resembling, midst the torture of the scene. 
Love watching madness with unalterable mien. " 

Goldsmith, in his ''Traveler," dowered it with the 
single line — 

"And Niagara stuns with thundering sound." 

287 



The sentimental Mrs. Lydia M. Sigourney wrote at 
least four poems on it. The "Apostrophe," written 
on Table Rock, and her " Niagara," being the best 
known. I give a quotation from each : 

*' Up to the Table Rock, where the great flood 
Reveals its fullest glory. To the verge 
Of its appalling battlements draw near, 
And gaze below, or, if thy spirit fail, 
Creep stealthily and snatch a trembling glance 
Into the dread abyss. 

What there thou seest 
Shall dwell forever in thy secret soul. 
Finding no form of language. 

For 'tis meet 
That even the mightiest of our race should stand 
Mute in thy presence, and, with child-like awe. 
Disrobed of self, adore his God through thee." 

And — 

" Flow on forever in thy glorious robe 
Of terror and of beauty ! God hath set 
His rainbow on thy forehead, and the cloud 
Mantles around thy feet, and He doth give 
The voice of thunder power to speak of Him 
Eternally — bidding the lip of man 
Keep silence, and upon thy rocky altar pour 
Incense of awe-stricken praise." 

John G. C. Brainard, then editor of a Connecticut 
newspaper, in response to a call for copy, wrote, at a 
single sitting, what has been called " The best poem 
ever written on Niagara ": 

"The thoughts are strange that crowd into my brain 
While I look upward to thee. It would seem 
As if God pour'd thee from His hollow hand, 

288 



I 



And hung His bow upon thine awful front, 

And spoke in that loud voice which seem'd to him 

Who dwelt in Patmos for his Saviour's sake, 

The sound of many waters, and had bade 

Thy flood to chronicle the ages back 

And notch His centuries in the eternal rocks, 

'Deep calleth unto Deep, and what are we 
That hear the question of the voice sublime? 
Oh ! What are all the notes that ever rung 
From War's vain trumpet by thy thundering side ! 
Yea, what is all the riot man can make 
In his short life to thy unceasing roar ! 
And yet, bold babbler, what art thou to Him 
Who drown'd a world and heaped the waters far 
Above its loftiest mountains? — a light wave 
That breaks and whispers of its Maker's might." 



B. Frank Palmer's "Apostrophe to Niagara," a 
typical apostrophe of devotional verse, has been 
characterized " as having the music of Niagara in it," 
and is reproduced in full : 

This is Jehovah's fullest organ strain ! 

I hear the liquid music, rolling, breaking. 
From the gigantic pipes the great refrain 

Bursts on my ravished ear, high thoughts awaking ! 

The low sub-bass, uprising from the deep 
Swells the great paean as it rolls supernal — 

Anon, I hear, at one majestic sweep 
The diapason of the keys eternal. 

Standing beneath Niagara's angry flood — 

The thundering cataract above me bounding — 

I hear the echo : " Man, there is a God ! " 

From the great arches of the gorge resounding. 
289 



Behold, O man, nor shrink aghast in fear ! 

Survey the vortex boiling deep before thee ! 
The Hand that ope'd the liquid gateway here 

Hath set the beauteous bow of promise o'er thee ! 

Here, in the hollow of that Mighty Hand, 

Which holds the basin of the tidal ocean, 
Let not the jarring of the spray-washed strand 

Disturb the orisons of pure devotion. 

Roll on, Niagara ! Great River King ! 

Beneath thy sceptre all earth's rulers, mortal. 
Bow reverently ; and bards shall ever sing 

The matchless grandeur of thy peerless portal ! 

I hear, Niagara, in this grand strain 

His voice, who speaks in flood, in flame, and thunder — 
Forever, mayst thou, singing, roll and reign — 

Earth's grand, sublime, supreme, supernal wonder. 

The author wrote it on Table Rock. 
Frederika Bremer wrote a brief poem on Niagara. 
The translation of a portion of it is : 

Niagara is the betrothal of Earth's life 

With the Heavenly life. 

That has Niagara told me to-day. 

And now I can leave Niagara. She has 

Told me her word of primeval being. 

One of the best poems on Niagara is that by Maria 
Jose Heredosia, translated from the Spanish by 
William Cullen Bryant : 

Tremendous Torrent, for an instant hush 
The terrors of thy voice, and cast aside 
Those wide involving shadows ; that mine eyes 
May see the fearful beauty of thy face. 
* -jf * 

2go 



J 



The hoarse and rapid whirlpool's there ! My brain 
Grows wild, my senses wander, as I gaze 
Upon the hurrying waters ; and my sight 
Vainly would follow, as toward the verge 
Sweeps the wide torrent ; waves innumerable 
Meet there and madden ; waves innumerable 
Urge on and overtake the waves before, 
And disappear in thunder and in foam. 

And the following, credited to Miss Hancock, whose 
nom de plume was Jennie Frye, deserves a place in 

full : 

Great Fall, all hail : 

Canst thou unveil 

The secrets of thy birth ; 

Unfold the page 

Of each dark age, 

And tell the tales of earth ? 

When I was born 

The stars of morn 

Together sang — 'twas day : 

The sun unrolled 

His garb of gold 

And took his upward way. 

He mounted high 

The eastern sky 

And then looked down on earth ; 

And she was there. 

Young, fresh, and fair. 

And I, and all, had birth. 

The word of power 
Was spoke that hour : 
Dark chaos felt the shock ; 
Forth sprung the light, 
Burst day from night, 
Up leaped the living rock. 
291 



Back fell the sea 

The land was free, 

And mountain, hill and plain 

Stood forth to view, 

In emerald hue, — 

Then sang the stars amain. 

And I — oh Thou : 

Who taught me how 

To hymn thy wondrous love. 

Deign to be near 

And calm my fear, 

Holy One above. 

1 caught the word. 
Creation heard, 

And by Thy power arose ; 
His goodness gave 
The swelling wave 
That ever onward flows. 

By His command 

The rainbow spanned 

My forehead, and His will 

Evoked the cloud 

My feet to shroud, 

And taught my voice to trill. 

And who is he 

That questions me? 

From whom hast thou thy form, 

Thy life, thy soul ? 

My waters roll 

Through day, night, sunshine, storm. 

In grateful praise 
To Him I raise 
A never ceasing song ; 
To that dread One, 
To whom stars, sun. 
Earth, ocean, all belong. 
292 



Thou, too, adore 

Him evermore 

Who gave thou all thou hast ; 

Let time gone by 

In darkness die, 

Deep buried in the past. 

And be thy mind 

To Him inclined 

Who made earth, heaven and thee 

Thy every thought 

To worship wrought, — 

This lesson learn of me. 



Others who have written beautiful verse on Niagara 
are : In English, Rev. C. H. Buckley (the longest 
poem on the subject), J. Rodman Drake, Thos. Grin- 
field, A. S. Ridgeley, R. W, Gilder (the shortest and 
one of the best), George Houghton, Lord Morpeth, J, 
S. Buckingham, Willis G.Clark, William Ellery Chan- 
ning, and " a member of the Ohio Bar," an unsigned but 
beautiful piece of verse. In French, a Canadian, Louis 
Frechette, and the Compte de Fleury have written 
excellent verse. In Italian, J. B. Scandella and Rev. 
Santo Santelli. In Spanish, Juan Antonio Bonalde. 
In Swedish, John Nyborn. 

And, lastly, "Thoughts on Niagara," by Michael 
McGuire, a blind man, whose poem proves that the 
cataract appeals to the senses by the ear as well as by 
the eye. 

Numberless other writers of good verse might be 

named ; but, as in art, it is impossible to name each 

one who has produced a picture of Niagara that is 

good, but not superlative, and as in prose it is impossi- 

293 



ble to quote each writer whose article contains a 
specially notable expression or comparison, even so 
in poetry one cannot even name all who have paid 
tribute in verse, perhaps in meritorious verse, to 
Niagara. 

F. H. Severance (to whose researches in Niagarana 
I am indebted for the names of some of the writers 
last referred to) thus aptly sums up the feebleness of 
the poetry on the great cataract : 

" True poetry must be self-expressive, as well as 
interpretive of truths which are manifested through 
physical phenomena. Hence it is in the nature of 
things that a nameless brook shall have its Tennyson, 
or a Niagara flow unsung." 



294 



NIAGARA IN ART. 



" What artist armies have essayed 
To fix that evanescent bow?" 



Niagara in art dates back but a trifle over two 
centuries, the first known picture thereof being that 
by Father Louis Hennepin, published in 1697. No 
one spot on earth has been more portrayed, one may 
go further and say, no one spot on earth has been 
half as much portrayed, as has Niagara. It has been 
pictured in every known style of art ; in oils, in 
water colors, in engravings of every grade and kind, 
in lithographs, in every form of illustration known to 
magazines and newspapers, in daguerreotypes, and, 
lastly ( numerically exceeding many, many times all 
the other forms combined), in photography. 

And yet, in spite of all this, the really great pic- 
tures of Niagara are so few that their number can 
be expressed by a single numeral, and that number 
will not be the highest single one. 

None of the great painters of mediaeval times ever 
even knew of the existence of the great cataract. 
Raphael, Michael Angelo, Titian, and Veronese had 
all been in their graves for half a century before 
Europeans even heard that a wondrous waterfall 
existed in the northern part of the Western Hemis- 
phere. Rembrant, Murillo, Rubens and Velasquez, 
while all of them may have learnt of the existence 
295 



of Niagara, had passed away, before the first known 
picture of it appeared. As each of them, in the 
glory of their art, both in their allegory and 
portraiture, often used natural scenery as a back- 
ground for their subjects, it is interesting to conjecture 
how, had it been known to them by even incorrect 
reproduction, any of them would have depicted the 
great cataract. 

No one of the great artists of the eighteenth cen- 
tury ever journeyed to Niagara ; and as their art was 
true to nature, no one of them, so far as is known, 
ever tried to reproduce Niagara in any way. 

Art was not a remunerative occupation in Great 
Britain's American colonies ; neither was the period 
of the Revolution, nor the decade that followed it, 
conducive thereto, on this side of the Atlantic. 

Yet it is remarkable that such a subject as Niagara, 
so prominent during their lives, in Britain's military 
history (in her struggle with France for supremacy in 
the New World), did not appeal to Reynolds, or West, 
or Copley, to the latter two especially, as both were 
born in the colonies, though they spent much of their 
Hves in England. 

Again, in the first decade of the nineteenth century, 
what a picture of the cataract either Turner or AUston 
— the one an EngHshman, the other an American — 
could have produced ; and yet, although the War of 
1812 was fought to a large extent on this frontier, 
and a famous battle, often called the Battle of 
Niagara, occurred on the heights above the cataract, 
and in view of it, the portrayal of Niagara did not 
appeal to either of them. 

297 



It was left to later and less famed artists to produce 
what are called the great pictures of this greatest of 
natural wonders. 

Commencing with Hennepin's picture, in 1697, the 
first half of the eighteenth century saw many repro- 
ductions of Niagara, mainly in wood engraving, all 
done by artists who never saw Niagara, largely by 
engravers of the French school, for it must be borne in 
mind that the French were the owners of Eastern 
Canada, and from 1678 to 1725 the Niagara region 
was visited by a large number of Frenchmen, both 
soldiers and fur traders ; and from 1725 to 1759 Fort 
Niagara was garrisoned by a large French force. 
Such of these men as returned to France carried back 
with them reports of the cataract ; and it was no 
doubt with Hennepin's picture as a basis, modified by 
the criticisms thereon and suggestions in connection 
therewith, made by their countrymen who had seen 
it, that all the reproductions of Niagara during the 
first half of the eighteenth century were drawn. 

As illustrative of Niagara in art during the first 
half of the eighteenth century, I have selected three 
prints : First — Hennepin's, published 1697, though he 
saw the Falls in 1678-80. This view is given on page 
118. Second — Leclercq's, about 17 10, based no doubt 
on Hennepin's view, and modified to better conform 
to Hennepin's own description, and probably with 
such changes as friends of his who had seen Niagara 
suggested. Third — A typical view, practically the 
typical accepted view, of Niagara of that period, 
probably about 1725, 

The dates of these three pictures give convincing 
299 



testimony as to the changes in the contour of the 
Fails. Hennepin speaks of the three falls, including 
one that was at the western end of the Horseshore 
Fall, formed by the end of the fall running around a 
big rock, or small rocky isle, at the edge of the cliff, 
and he so pictures it. 

The next view does not show this third fall, going 
to show that between 1678 and 17 10 this rock, or 
rocky isle, had disintegrated and been swept into the 
gulf below, thus making this third fall a part of the 
great Fall. 

In 1759, the British gained control of this region, 
and during that year and the succeeding ten years 
many hundred Anglo-Saxons, soldiers and traders, 
gazed upon Niagara. 

Thus the picturing of Niagara in the second half of 
the eighteenth century passed from the French to the 
English school of engravers ; and, as Niagara became 
better known, its reproductions became more artistic, 
and, therefore, more truthful. 

Probably the first picture of Niagara after the 
British acquired possession of this territory was an 
engraving from a drawmg by Captain Thomas Davies, 
dedicated to General Amherst. It must have appeared 
about 1760, the plate being one of a series of six, all 
representing North American scenery. The rainbow 
must have been an exceptionally large and brilliant 
one on the day the artist made the sketch. 

In 1768 there appeared the first engraving of 
Niagara which had any serious pretensions either to 
accuracy or to any artistic merit. It was from a 
painting by Richard Wilson, which in turn was taken 

301 





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from a drawing made by Lieutenant Pierie of the 
Royal British Artillery, who, no doubt, was then sta- 
tioned at Fort Niagara. These two engravings are 
reproduced as typical of Niagara in art in the latter 
half of the eighteenth century. 

After the Revolution, and prior to 1810, travelers 
often came to Niagara. The journey, it was true, 
was a tiresome one, but many came. 

In 1804 John Vanderlyn painted what at that date 
were the best pictures extant of the P^alls. They 
were done m oils. These two pictures are now in the 
possession of the New York Historical Society, so 
badly hung as to be unappreciated. 

It is to be noted that all the views of Niagara prior 
to 1800 are taken from the Canadian side. 

The reason for this is obvious. The early visitors 
sought the one and the most accessible view. Goat 
Island was accessible only by canoe, the shore on the 
American side was covered with forest trees, and there 
was no accommodation for travelers, nor even a 
settlement there ; whereas on the Canadian shore two 
or three public houses had been built on the high bluff 
overlooking the American Fall in the latter years of 
the eighteenth century. What facilities for travel 
there were, were on the Canadian shore. 

Along about 1820, Niagara became a resort of note. 
Taverns^ luxurious ones for that period, were erected 
on the American side about that date, and the first 
guide book that included Niagara appeared in 182 1, a 
sure sign that it was a frequented place. 

Between 1830 and 1840, the illustrations of Niagara 
became more plentiful. The lithographers in France, 

303 



England, and America seemed suddenly to have 
turned their attention to it. Large colored views, in 
pairs, in sets of four and six, and smaller views, in sets 
of six, eight, and twelve appeared. Some were fairly 
well drawn ; many were outrageously exaggerated. 
The coloring of almost all of them was inartistic, if 
not villainous. As fairly typical of Niagara in the 
lithography of the first half of the nineteenth century, 
I have selected but one view, done about 1840, and 
specially interesting, in that it shows the curve of the 
Horseshoe Fall, a name substituted during the first 
half of this century for the former more appropriate 
name of the Greater Fall 

The middle of the nineteenth century saw the art 
of Niagara placed on a far higher plane by American 
artists. In 1848, Thomas Cole portrayed Niagara on 
canvas better than it ever had been portrayed. In 
1857, Frederick Church painted his famous view of 
the cataract, which is now in the Corcoran Art Gallery 
in Washington. It stands to-day as the best and 
highest reproduction of Niagara in art. Gustave Dore 
never gazed on the Falls ; but, in illustrating 
Chataubriand's Atala, embodied a Tiew of the Greater 
Fall, done in his characteristic manner — the sheet of 
water viewed from between, and as it were framed in, 
the mannered trees for which Dore was famed. 
Albert Bierstadt has produced one or two specially 
well executed views of Niagara out of his many 
studies of the subject. 

The rapids above the Falls, that have appealed to 
many prose writers and poets as the most interesting 
parts of Niagara, have, of recent years, found two 

305 



artists of renown who selected them for reproduction 
in preference to the Falls themselves. When Wm. M. 
Hunt was selected to decorate the huge panels of the 
Assembly Chamber in the Capitol at Albany, about 
1880, he chose Niagara for one of his subjects ; and 
at Niagara he selected the rapids above the Goat 
Island Bridge as the ideal view. He died before che 
work on the panel had been commenced, but his 
finished studies for the work are among the best 
examples of art at Niagara. Lastly, in 1890, Colin 
Hunter, now a Royal Academician, came to place 
Niagara on canvas. He selected as the typical view, 
the one from the upper end of the Little Brother 
Island, of the Goat Island group. It is doubtful if, 
with the exception of Church's Niagara, any picture of 
Niagara is so fascinating. The crest of the first ledge 
of the Canadian Rapids, extending from the Sister 
Islands toward Canada, is the sky line, only the tops of 
a few trees on the Canadian shore indicating the 
presence of land. 

As representing Niagara in art during the latter 
half of the nineteenth century, I have selected Thomas 
Cole's distant view of both Falls from down stream ; 
Frederick Church's Niagara, from just above Table 
Rock and looking across the Horseshoe Fall and up 
the river ; Dore's Niagara as a " m^annered sketch "; 
and Colin Hunter's Rapids of Niagara. This latter 
is given on page 94. 

Many more examples might be given ; and, per- 
haps, at some future date, this sketch of Niagara in art 
may be extended so as to include a fairly full set of 
the typical reproductions that have been made of the 
307 



scenery of the Cataract during the two hundred years 
it has been known to the world by reproduction. 

Of the unnumbered thousands of photographs of 
Niagara that professionals from the days of Daguerre, 
and amateurs for some years past, have taken of this 
spot, it is only necessary to say here, that the many 
illustrations in this volume represent the highest and 
best reproductions of Niagara that the art of photog- 
raphy at the close of the nineteenth century can 
produce. Many of them represent views heretofore 
inadequately pictured, in some cases never before 
known to have been secured. And the desire of the 
great majority of its visitors to carry home a fairly 
faithful picture of Niagara, as they saw it, is the main 
reason for its being incessantly photographed, both 
by experts and by amateurs. 

It is the immensity, so to speak, of Niagara ; it is 
the overwhelming feeling of power ; it is its practically 
unproducable lights and shades ; it is the almost 
unattainable brilliancy of its coloring — that have de- 
terred many really great artists from attempting to 
paint it. 

I think everyone will agree with Hatton when he 
writes : " The painter is delighted with Niagara, with 
the varying forms that challenge his pencil, with the 
play of light which defies his brush. The light of 
heaven dances upon it in a thousand different hues. 
To paint the glories that come and go upon the fall- 
ing, rushing waters, the artist must dip his brush in 
the rainbow, and when he has done his best, he will 
not be believed by those who have not seen his sub- 
ject with their own eyes." 

309 




Painted by Gustave Dore, about i860. 



Whether the cataract can be, or will ever be, really 
truthfully pictured depends on the correctness of the 
following statement : 

" When motion can be expressed by color, there will 
be some hope of imparting a faint idea of it ; but until 
that can be done, Niagara must remain unportrayed." 



3" 



MEMORANDA. 



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